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IN 

DR. J. O.HALL 





Book . ' H3 



10 



COFKRiGHT DEPOSm 



WHEN I WAS A BOY 
IN NORWAY 



CHILDREN OF OTHER LANDS BOOKS 

Independent Volumes With Characteristic Illus- 
trations and Cover Designs i2mo Cloth 

There are many books about the children of other coun- 
tries, but no other group like this, with each volume written 
by one who has lived the foreign child life described, and 
learned from subsequent experience in this country how to 
tell it in a way attractive to American children — and in fact 
to Americans of any age. 

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN CHINA, By Yan Phoa Ue 
WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN ITALY, By Marietta Ambroti 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN, By Sakae Sliioya 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN GREECE, By George Demetrios 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN PALESTINE, By Moasa J. Kaleel 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN BELGIUM, By Robert Jonckheere 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN RUSSIA, By Vladimir Mokrievitch 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN ROUMANIA, By Dr. J. S. VanTeslaar 
WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN HOLLAND, By Cornelia De Groot 
WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN MEXICO, By Mercedes Godoy 
WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN ICELAND, By Hobnfridur Amadottir 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN PERSIA, By Youel B. Mirza 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN SCOTLAND, By George McP. Hunter 
WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY, By Jobn 0. HaU 
WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN SWITZERLAND, By S. Lonite Patteton 



LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 
BOSTON 




The Author at Eighteen. 
Dr, J. O. Hall as an athlete in Christiania, Norway. 



WHEN I WAS A BOY 
IN NORWAY 



By 
DR. J. O. HALL 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 




BOSTON 
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 



Published, October, 1921 

.H3 



Copyright, 1921, 
By Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 

All Rights Reserved 



When I Was a Boy In Norway 



mi (8 1921 [ 
g)CI.A627788 

Printed in U. S. A. 

Iftorwoo^ ipteea 

BERWICK & SMITH CO. 
Norwood, Mass. 



To my 

DEAR WIFEy 

and our beloved daughter^ 

EVANGELINE OR A, 

this volume 
is affectionately dedicated 



'' For he who knows a book to read 
May travel lightly without steed 
And find sweet comfort on the road. 
He shall forget the rugged way, 
Nor sigh for kindly company, 
Nor faint beneath his load/' 



FOREWORD 

Customs in Norway vary much in the 
different sections and valleys. What is 
customary in one valley may be strange 
or even unknown in another. 

This will be easily understood when we 
remember that the people in the solitary 
parishes have had little intercommunion 
and that each parish has clung to its own 
traditions and customs. With this in 
view, I have had the choice of either pre- 
senting that which is true of a small sec- 
tion or parish, or that which is more 
generally true for the whole country. 
Thinking that the majority of the readers 
are more interested in gaining a correct 
knowledge of the whole country of Nor- 
way than of a small section thereof, I 
have in this volume presented that which 

is typical for the nation rather than that 

7 



8 FOREWORD 

which is typical for even the parish in 
which I was born. This has also given 
me the opportunity to quote authors out- 
side of Norway when the country and its 
people have been praised very highly. 

As a modest son of Norway, I have se- 
lected this method of presentation rather 
than to give in all instances my own eu- 
logy of " Mother Norway '' and her 
people. 

J. O. Hall. 

Washington, D. C, 
May, 1921. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 



I. Sunlit Norway, Nature's Won- 
derland . . . 



n. The People of Norway • 

III. Eambles Around My Pictur 

ESQUE Birthplace . 

IV. JoTUNHEiM. A Peep Into the 

Home of the Giants 

V. Fjelds AND Falls 

VI. Eeturn of the Sun . 

VII. Our Games and Play 

VIII. The Hero, Frithjof the Vi 
king .... 



IX. Confirmation ... 
X. Educational System in Nor 



WAY 



XI. Popular Superstitions and 
Fairy Tales . 

XII. Popular Norse Tales. '* The 
Priest and the Clerk " 

XIII. *^ The Hare and the Heiress ' 

XIV. ^^ The Skipper and Old Nick ' 

XV. Norse Mythology . 

XVI. Saeter .... 

9 



13 
24 

38 

48 
63 
66 
69 

64 
85 

95 

110 

113 
116 
118 
122 
134 



10 CONTENTS 

XVII. Fjelds and Fjords of Norway 147 

XVIII. Holy Days. Unique Christ- 
mas Customs in Norway . 153 

XIX. Festivals : Seventeenth of 

May and St. John's Eve . 164 

XX. Eenowned Musicians, and Folk- 
Music IN Norway . . . 169 

XXI. Winter Sports. Skiing and 
Skating on the ^* Play- 
ground OF THE North '^ . 192 

XXII. Norwegian Literature • . 202 

XXIII. A Wedding Feast . . .233 

XXIV. A Cruise Around the Coast of 

Norway to North Cape and 
THE Midnight Sun . . 237 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Author at Eighteen . . Frontisfpiece 

FACING PAGE 

Eeady for the Climb . • . . 
Fossberg at the Foot of Lomseggen . 
Loms Church 



Bessheim, Jotunheim . 
The Eoyal Family of Norway 
Stalheim Hotel, Naerodalen, Norway 
Gudbrandsdalen .... 
Yaage Lake, Gudbrandsdalen 
Evening on the Saeter 
Fladbrod— Baking in Saeterdalen 
Old Posting Station, with Cariole 



Antique Costumes, Vaage, Gudbrandsdalen 162 



Drying the Hay . 
Peasant Wedding, Norway 
Midnight Sun, Lofoten, Norway 



18 

46 

46 

62 

84 

94 

112 

112 

138 

138 

152 



168 
234 
262 



U 



99 



WHEN I WAS A BOY IN 
NORWAY 

CHAPTER I 

SUNLIT NORWAY^ NATURE^S WONDERLAND 

I AM thankful that I had the oppor- 
tunity of being ''A Boy in Norway; 
but I am also grateful to " Uncle Sam 
for adopting me as an American citizen. 

Hence, Norway is my mother, who 
gave me my gentle training for twenty 
years, and " Uncle Sam " is my father, 
who has given me great opportunities for 
education and travel, and has enabled me 
to meet with the people in the different 
States and learn a great deal of the past 
and present of this glorious country. 

In this book I am obliged to speak of 

my " mother " only, and of such a good 

and beautiful mother I must of necessity 

say nice things. 

13 



14 WHENIWASABOYIN NORWAY 

Therefore, if you find me calling her 
pet names, you must never think that I 
have lost my affection for my " father ''; 
but as a loyal, devoted child I can love 
them both. 

The Irishman said, " Every one ought 
to be patriotic about his native country, — 
whether he was bom there or not." 

As one among many thousands, I can 
testify to the fact that it is possible to be 
patriotic — in the best sense of the word — 
both toward one's native and one's 
adoptive country. 

And who could help being patriotic for 
Norway, Nature's Wonderland, the 
Land of the Vikings, of Saga and Song, 
of Fjords and Falls, of Mountains and 
Ice-fields, with a variety of climate, from 
the mildest tracts in the south to the 
Arctic winters in the north, and the lure 
of the Midnight Sun and the Northern 
Lights? 

Surely we can say with the beloved 
Norse poet, Bjornson: 



SUNLIT NORWAY 15 

** This North Land is our own, 
And we love each rock and stone, 
From the rugged old snow mountains 
To the cabins by the main ; 
And our love shall be the seed 
To bear the fruit we need.'^ 

We could w^rite a big volume on the 
grand and picturesque scenery of Nor- 
way; but there are many excellent books 
on this subject. You, of course, vii^ill be 
interested in the phenomena and w^onders 
of the land of the Norsemen, and in order 
to show you the magnificent scenery we 
shall take you along on delightful holiday 
tours and rambles in this " New Switzer- 
land." But more interesting than his 
country is the Norseman himself. We 
shall, therefore, spend ample time in 
studying the people, their habits, customs, 
traditions, folk-lore, and fairy-tales. 

We shall study the interesting charac- 
teristics of the descendants of those brave 
and valiant Vikings, who in the days of 
old, when Europe was degraded by the 
chains of slavery, governed themselves by 



16 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

their own laws and planted that spirit of 
self-ruling and freedom, which she 
proudly possesses to-day, and which en- 
titles her country to be called the " Freest 
of the Free." 

What Does this Fairy-land Look 

Like? 

In order to answer this, let us take a 
bird's-eye view of this country. How 
can we do it? Just step with me into an 
airplane. We have an expert pilot, and 
he will show us the general outline of the 
land. Afterwards we will take our time 
and see and learn more at each of the 
most interesting points. 

Supposing our pilot could take us so 
high that with our excellent instruments 
we could view the whole country at once. 
What does it look like? It looks like a 
giant Greenland whale — about 1,200 miles 
long. Toward the south is the big head, 
250 miles wide, and toward the north is 
the tail — terminating in North Cape. 



SUNLIT NORWAY 17 

Portions of this fish suggest that it has 
been underfed, as the northern half is only 
about sixty miles wide. 

This giant whale is washed by three 
oceans. The wintry Arctic in the north, 
the Atlantic — tempered by the mild Gulf 
Stream — in the west, and the gentle gales 
of the Skagerak and Kattegat in the south. 
On the east side it is safely moored to 
Sweden for a distance of 950 miles, and 
in the northern part to Finland for 450 
miles, and to Russia for 100 miles. 

You will observe that this giant whale 
is not only dead, but petrified. We can 
therefore examine it without being dis- 
turbed. 

Its mighty backbone is the first portion 
to invite our attention. This is divided 
into three parts. Langfjeldene (Long- 
mountains) is the name of the backbone 
from the head up to the big crossbone, 
which is called Dovref jeld (Dovre-moun- 
tains) . Then the backbone from there to 
the tail is called Kjolen (The Keel). 



18 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

This mighty bone sticks up 6,151 feet 
above the sea, and the large part within 
the Arctic Circle is covered with immense 
snow-fields and glaciers. Let us now 
take a look at the crossbone, the Dovre- 
fjeld, with the highest peaks in Scandi- 
navia — the Glittertind (8,385 feet) and 
Galdhopiggen (8,400 feet). 

These mighty peaks are the fathers of 
the mountains. They have thousands of 
children, and some of these are about as 
big as their fathers. Each member of the 
family covers himself with a heavy veil of 
snow and ice. This veil is also stretched 
out between them, and thus it covers over 
five thousand square miles. The veil 
drops as low as 5,580 feet. This is called 
the snow-line. 

See how these glaciers glitter in the 
sunlight like an ocean of brilliant dia- 
monds, and from this ocean of perpetual 
ice we see pale-green streams issue and 
form magnificently vaulted deep blue 
caverns. 



SUNLIT NORWAY 19 

As our pilot points out and explains 
this panoramic view, valley after valley 
and mountain after mountain open their 
charms to our wondering gaze. Is it real, 
or is it a fairy-tale in which a wall of rock 
opens and displays an entrance to the 
most mysterious and enchanting scenes? 
It is real, and we stand speechless. 

A wondrous sense of sublime ecstasy 
steals over us — " something sinks into our 
souls that nothing will ever efface." 

According to Norse folk-lore, these 
vast mountain districts are supposed to be 
inhabited by many kinds of unnatural 
folk, who live underground and in the 
mountains. Some of these are great 
giants like trolls, and some are small 
dwarfs, gnomes, and witches. Our pilot 
is one of the few who can both see and 
converse with such people. Can you hear 
him ask one of the witches that is flying 
around us, " How old are these moun- 
tains, and how were they made? " She 
answers, '* They were made during the ice 



20 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

age, when the ice sheet six to seven thou- 
sand feet thick moved all over the country 
and performed the mighty work of ero- 
sion, transportation, and deposition of 
rock and earthy material. Thus the hills 
and dales, the mountains and the deep 
valleys, were made. You also ask how 
long it is since this happened. That you 
can figure out yourself by following these 
rules of my mother. She said that if a 
cat had ten lives, and he could live fifty 
years for each of his lives, and his off- 
spring through every generation could 
live just as long as the first cat, then you 
would find that exactly one thousand 
generations of cats have died since these 
mountains were made." 

Having said this, she flies away laugh- 
ing, as if she thought that we should 
find it difiicult to solve this simple prob- 
lem. 

Now, we observed that these great 
snow-fields and glaciers are also the par- 
ents of innumerable beautiful cascades, 



SUNLIT NORWAY 21 

and even though it is midsummer, we no- 
tice that the snow hangs like a fringe on 
every ledge and curtains every slope. 

From our airplane we can see some- 
thing like long, winding, blue ribbons ex- 
tending from the ocean far into the coun- 
try all over the western coast of Norway. 
They are called fjords. The western 
coast-line is broken up by deep incisions 
of the sea into the rocky cliffs, — just as if 
the meat between the ribs of our giant 
whale had been removed, and the clear 
green water from the North Sea had filled 
the openings. 

These fjords and the mainland are al- 
ways protected against the roaring bil- 
lows without, by a perfect belt of islands, 
which to the number of 150,000 gird the 
coast (with but few entirely open 
stretches), and form the most perfect 
breakwater from the southeastern fron- 
tier right up to the North Cape. 

These islands vary in size; but alto- 
gether they contain one-fourteenth of the 



22 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

land surface of Norway and one-eighth of 
the population. 

We shall stop just long enough at the 
Lofoten chain of isles to listen to the 
beautiful description of them by a Norse 
rhapsodist. He says: 

" Like needles their snow-capped peaks 
pierce the sky. During the greater part 
of the year snow fills the ravines far down 
the mountain sides, clasping their frosty 
arms around the valleys, and sending 
down like streams of tears along the 
weather-beaten cheeks of these northern 
Alps innumerable foaming waterfalls and 
roaring cascades, falling in an endless 
variety of graceful shapes into the pro- 
found fjords below. 

" With their lofty jagged pinnacles, 
fantastic chasms, and rugged precipices, 
they present a picture of unutterable 
grandeur." 

We shall visit the coast of the Lofoten 
islands again, because here are the chief 
cod and herring fishing-grounds of Nor- 
way. The pilot told us that during the 



SUNLIT NORWAY 23 

fishing season forty thousand fishermen 
gather here, and the annual yield of fish 
exceeds two million dollars. 

Near the south end of these islands it 
looked as though the whole ocean were 
boiling. This is the famous whirlpool 
known as the Maelstrom. 

We cannot relate in this chapter all 
that we have seen from our airplane. In 
other chapters we shall describe Norway's 
beautiful spring, her rich autumn colors, 
the Midnight Sun, when it robes the sea, 
land, and sky in the wondrous grandeur 
of an endless summer day, and the match- 
less beauty and pristine purity of her 
snowy winters with skiing, skating, and 
tobogganing. 



CHAPTER II 

THE PEOPLE OF NORWAY 

We have taken a brief glance at Nor- 
way as a country. Let us now look at 
the people who are living there. 

Their most common names are Ole, 
Hans, Peder, etc. 

If Ole had a son whose given name 
were Hans, his full name would be Hans 
Olsen (Ole's son). And if Peder had a 
daughter named Mary, her full name 
would be Mary Pedersdatter (Mary 
Peder's daughter) , etc. 

Many, especially professional people, 
take the names from the farms where they 
were born. 

This was the case with my father, 
whose name was Ole Helle, then Halle, 
and finally Hall. 

In size and complexion, there are two 

different types of Norsemen. In the 

24 



THE PEOPLE OF NORWAY 25 

great valleys of the interior, as Osterdalen 
and Gudbrandsdalen are to be found the 
most marked physical characteristics of 
the Norwegians. They are tall of stat- 
ure, strong of limb, with rather long and 
narrow heads. Most of them have blue 
eyes and sixty per cent, have light hair. 
These belong to the purest Teutonic 
ethnic stock. Racially they are closely 
related to the Icelanders, Swedes, Danes, 
Germans, English, and Flemish. Be- 
cause so many of these different nationali- 
ties have emigrated to America, we find 
that seventy-five per cent, of the Ameri- 
can population belong also to the same 
Teutonic race. 

In the coast section of the country is to 
be found the second type. These repre- 
sent more of a race mixture. They are 
shorter of stature, with broader heads, 
and a darker complexion. 

Personally I belong to the latter type, 
although I was born in Gudbrandsdalen. 
In this parish there were very few who, 



26 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

like myself, had black hair and a dark 
complexion, and as a boy I heard some 
old women say that, because I was so dif- 
ferent from most of the children in the 
neighborhood, I would certainly turn out 
to be either very, very bad or extremely 
good. To date their prophecy has not 
come true, as I am neither notoriously 
bad nor renowned for my goodness. 

The Norse anthropologist Arbo says 
that these coast people are more emo- 
tional, loquacious, and susceptible to lead- 
ership than the stolid, reserved and inde- 
pendent Teutons of the interior regions. 

Among people in America one often 
hears the expression: " He is a white- 
headed Swede." In many cases he might 
be a light-haired Norwegian or Dane ; but 
to the average American they are all 
Swedes. But a Norwegian resents being 
called a Swede. The reason is that dur- 
ing the early part of the last century, a 
great many Swedes of the poorer class 
would go to Norway in order to get em- 



THE PEOPLE OF NORWAY. 27 

ployment. Many of them were rather 
shiftless, and the saying, " He has made 
a Swede of himself," became a proverb 
that was applied to all who showed a lack 
of business ethics. This is rather unfor- 
tunate, because most Swedes are as hon- 
orable and as fine a people as you can find 
in any country. 

Many Norwegians enlisted in the Civil 
War of the United States, and when the 
troops were measured it was found that 
the Americans were the tallest, 171.9 cm., 
with the Norwegians a close second, 171.4 
cm., while in breadth of chest the Norwe- 
gians excelled all the other nationalities. 

The Norwegians are just ordinarily 
handsome, which is to say they are rather 
plain people. The women are strong and 
squarely built, and what beauty they have 
has not been put on before the mirror. 
It has required their whole lifetime to 
acquire it, and therefore it is of the solid, 
substantial sort which is not washed off 
by either rain or tears. 



28 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

The American author,, Mr. W. S. 
Monroe, says: 

" Of the two sexes, the men are the bet- 
ter proportioned, both in the matter of 
figures and features. 

" Both men and women have frank and 
open countenances. 

" Their most marked mental character- 
istics are clear insight, dogged obstinacy, 
absolute honesty, and a sturdy sense of 
independence." 

The great poet, Bjornson (who is as 
beloved in Norway as Longfellow is in 
America), has made the following state- 
ment concerning his countrymen: 

" Opinions are slowly formed and 
tenaciously held, and much independence 
is developed by the rigorous isolation of 
farm from farm, each on its own freehold 
ground, unannoyed and uncontradicted 
by any one. The way the people work 
together in the fields, in the forest, and in 
their large rooms has given them a char- 
acteristic stamp of confidence in each 
other.'' 



THE PEOPLE OF NORWAY 29 

Such solitary and uneventful life 
amidst a rigid and rough nature makes 
the Norwegian farmer meditative and of 
few words, modest and slow — almost 
phlegmatic, — yet when necessary he is 
very resourceful and prompt to act. 

The two outstanding characteristics 
among all classes in Norway are Inde- 
pendence and Frankness. 

This independence or dogged persever- 
ance and stolidity he has inherited from 
the Teutons. But blended with this tem- 
perament he has the imaginative qualities 
and the mysticism of the Celts, and also 
the peculiar deep' sense of primeval sor- 
row and fatalistic outlook on life, which 
one finds in the Slav. 

The Norse national traits and charac- 
teristics are admirably stated by the Eng- 
lish author, Hon. Samuel J. Beck- 
ett, F. R. P. S., who says: 

" This blending of racial temperaments 
has given the national character an in- 
dividual charm, directness, and spontane- 



30 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

ity reflected in its art, literature, music, 
and national life, and it finds its counter- 
part in the Norwegian physique. The 
influence and the subtle relations exerted 
by the geographical conformation on the 
mental and spiritual development of a 
people may be more clearly traced here 
than in any other country. The rocky 
character of the soil, the peculiar forma- 
tion of the coast-line, full of excellent 
harbors and long navigable arms of the 
ocean penetrating far into the country, 
surrounded with narrow strips of arable 
and pasturable land, inevitably tended to 
form a strong and hardy race; a nation of 
warriors, pirates, and merchants — all de- 
pendent on the ocean for their livelihood 
and sustenance. . . . These primi- 
tive conditions of life reacted also on the 
social and religious system, making it 
prevalently feudal and semi-despotic in 
character. With regard to the latter, the 
bellicose and heroic rather than divine 
characteristics of the Norse gods are very 
significant and pervade the early sagas, 
and, indeed, the greater part of primitive 
Norwegian literature. It satisfied the 
people's inherent warlike spirit of adven- 
ture, and at the same time it conduced to 
the creation of that subtle spiritual 



THE PEOPLE OF NORWAY 31 

mysticism which is inseparable from the 
Norse character; yet it was through these 
same channels that the country was 
thrown open to the revolutionary influ- 
ence of Christianity. . . . 

" Any nation might well envy the peo- 
ple of Norway with their upright, manly 
bearing and their fair complexions and 
blue eyes. This simple, honest, hospi- 
table, God-fearing people are the modern 
descendants of those victorious Vikings 
who ravaged the coasts of Britain and 
later settled there — ^bringing with them 
that love of freedom which these men of 
the north have ever considered their most 
cherished possession. The progress 
which has been made during the last fifty 
years is nothing short of wonderful; in it 
is found the national spirit at its best, 
singularly united and advanced, and pro- 
ducing as fine a race, both physically and 
intellectually, as is to be found in any 
country. Their love of country is pro- 
verbial, and there are few countries where 
the singing of the national anthem 
awakens a deeper or more heart-stirring 
emotion than the singing of ' Gamle 
Norge' (Old Norway), one of their 
older national hymns." 



32 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

This deep-seated love of freedom has 
been the outstanding characteristic of the 
Norsemen in every age. Their character 
has nevei^ been marred by the yoke of 
slavery. From the earliest days to the 
present the people have been either small 
landholders, seamen, Vikings, or profes- 
sional men. 

This has developed in them a spirit of 
independence, which is not found in coun- 
tries where the majority of the inhab- 
itants have no direct property interest. 
Norway has no " country gentlemen " as 
in England. The wealthiest landlord is 
only a peasant, and he is always a hard 
worker. They have no leisure class, 
neither have they any hereditary aristoc- 
racy. Just one century ago it was pro- 
vided that those holding titles might be 
allowed to retain them during their lives, 
but they could not transmit them to their 
children. 

The absence of class distinctions 
makes it possible for any intelligent per- 



THE PEOPLE OF NORWAY 33 

son in Norway to seek the highest educa- 
tional and professional positions. Thus 
we see that the clergy of the country are 
almost entirely recruited from the ranks 
of the peasantry. 

That the great national university at 
Christiania is patronized by the children 
of the humblest farmers you will recog- 
nize when we call to your attention the 
fact that the following leading men were 
all sons of humble peasants, namely: 
Jorgen Moe, the renowned bishop and 
hymn-writer; Ivar Aasen, probably the 
greatest of Norse linguists; Arne Gar- 
borg, the popular author; Vinje, the lyric 
poet; Svendsen, the music composer; 
Skrevsrud, the indefatigable missionary 
to the Santhals; Dahl and Skredsvig the 
painters, and Skeibrok the sculptor; 
Thommesen, the gifted editor; Baard 
Haugland, the financier; Siver Nilsen, 
the statesman — and many others. 

The beloved poet Bjornson is most 
likely correct when he asserts that — **no 



34 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

other country possesses so many men in 
official positions — physicians, clergymen, 
engineers, teachers, and merchants — who 
are peasant-born, often from the tenant 
and working classes ; " and that *' in no 
other country have so many eminent 
poets, artists, men of science and states- 
men risen directly from the peasantry.'' 

The healthy peasant life gives them the 
necessary physical stamina for their sub- 
sequent arduous life of mental concentra- 
tion and development. 

They can also enjoy the benefits of a 
splendid school-system, which in turn ac- 
counts for the high average of education 
in Norway. 

When we consider the moral traits of 
the Norseman, we find that foreigners, 
who have lived among the people long 
enough to be competent judges, pro- 
nounce their moral standard to be excel- 
lent. 

Honesty is one of their valuable assets 
as a people. 



THE PEOPLE OF NORWAY 35 

Their merchants would never think of 
charging the tourists a higher price than 
they charge their own countrymen. 

The tourists who are accustomed to be 
overcharged, — especially in the southern 
part of Europe and in the Orient, — are 
delighted to find such honesty in Norway. 

The American author, Mr. W. S. 
Monroe, cites this typical incident: 

" An Englishman had lost his purse 
shortly after leaving Vassevangen for 
Stalheim. Altogether unconscious of his 
loss, he walked on placidly. Sud- 
denly, hearing hurried footsteps follow- 
ing him, he turned about and faced a lad, 
who thrust the pocketbook into the own- 
er's palm and disappeared before the 
Englishman got a coin from his pocket 
to reward the boy for his honesty. The 
Norwegian youth very properly did not 
expect a reward for doing the only thing 
open to his mind upon finding the purse." 

We will let this same author tell you 
how the Norwegian people treat their 
beasts of burden. Knowing it to be true. 



36 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

I quote it, preferring as a modest son of 
Norway to let others sing our praises : 

" No blows, no sore backs, no harsh 
tones disturb the perfect composure be- 
tween man and beast. Chiefly this is ow- 
ing to the good nature and sweet temper 
of the drivers and horse-owners, but it 
may be left to speculation how far these 
qualities here, as in Mohammedan lands, 
are owing to the absence of public houses 
and the universal sobriety of the people." 

In this connection a New Yorker, who 
had been traveling in Norway, tells how 
he made a call on " Jimmie " — a young 
boy, who had been driving him with his 
team for about three days : 

" We strolled out and visited ' Jimmie ' 
at his cottage. We found him resting, 
and he took us out to a clover field in 
which his ponies were grazing. When 
they saw him coming they left the clover 
and rushed at him like a pair of New- 
foundlands, and rubbed their heads 
against him. This tribute of affection 
was well deserved, as we had never seen 



THE PEOPLE OF NORWAY 37 

such care given to animals ; but that is the 
rule in Norway. We did not see a horse 
with a sore, or [one] that was lame, or in 
a poor condition during our whole stay in 
the country."' 



CHAPTER III 

RAMBLES AROUND MY PICTURESQUE 
BIRTHPLACE 

For this ramble we start from Chris- 
tiania, the capital of Norway, founded in 
1624 by Christian IV. 

The approach to Christiania by water 
is famed and extolled. It affords a view 
of the pretty valley of Aker, broad and 
fertile, and surrounded by low hills. 

This city has changed its character 
within the last generation, and it is now 
a modern town with numerous fine build- 
ings. 

In the centre of the city the buildings 
are mostly of marble and granite. On a 
hill above the handsome University build- 
ings and the fine National Theatre, lies 
the royal palace surrounded by a large 

and beautiful park. In the vicinity of the 

38 



AROUND MY BIRTHPLACE 39 

town are the hotels of HohiienkoUen and 
Voksenkollen, favorite and (beautiful 
places of resort. 

In order to reach my birthplace we 
board a train on Norway's oldest railway. 
This will take us to Eidsvold, where Nor- 
way's constitution was signed on May 
17th, 1814. At this place is now an in- 
teresting historical museum belonging to 
the nation. At Eidsvold we take the 
steamer for Lillehammer over Mjosen, 
the largest lake in Norway (sixty-one 
and one-half miles long, one hundred and 
forty-one square miles in area) . 

From the steamer we can see large, 
prosperous farms on both sides of the 
lake. 

We pass the thriving town of Hamar, 
where we can see the ruins of the cathe- 
dral, destroyed in 1567. 

After a pleasant ride on this placid lake 
we arrive at Lillehammer, a town of 
about 4,000 inhabitants. Lillehammer, 
being nearer my birthplace than any 



40 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

other city, was the first town I ever 
visited. 

It has an open-air museum of old Nor- 
wegian peasant buildings in which ancient 
costumes, domestic utensils, and weapons 
are preserved. The museum is a unique 
curiosity and exceedingly interesting. 

From the Mesna bridge, which con- 
nects the northern and southern parts of 
the town, it is only a few minutes' walk to 
the Helvedeshol (hell caldron), a ravine 
in which there are fine waterfalls. 

From Lillehammer we can continue 
our journey by rail, auto, or by horse and 
cariole. We select the auto in order to get 
a good view of the beautiful and fertile 
valley of Gudbrandsdalen. 

Through the entire length of the valley 
(about one hundred and thirty miles) we 
follow the course of the broad, rushing 
river, which adds much to the pic- 
turesqueness of the scenes we pass 
through. 

We make short stops at the Hunder- 



AROUND MY BIRTHPLACE 41 

foss, Tretten, and the church at Ringebu, 
which existed as early as 1270. 

At Hundorp we must also stop. This 
place seems to have been very important 
when the primitive Norsemen were wor- 
shipping Odin and Thor, for there are 
several barrows in its neighborhood. A 
farmhouse called Hundorp is said to 
have been the seat of Dale Gudbrand, 
the heathen opponent of St. Olaf . King 
Olaf traveled through his country in or- 
der to convert the people from Odin and 
Thor and have them accept the Chris- 
tian religion. But Dale Gudbrand and 
his peasants brought to the place of inter- 
view a great wooden image of the god 
Thor. King Olaf was delivering a sermon, 
and just as the sun rose, he pointed to it 
and said, " Look to the east, there comes 
our God in great glory." The people 
turned to look, and this was, — according 
to former agreement, the time for Olaf's 
man, Kolbjorn the Strong, to break the 
idol with his big club. As he did so. 



42 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

snakes, lizards, and rats as big as cats 
came out of the image. They had been 
feasting on the good food which was daily 
offered to this god. Dale Gudbrand and 
his people accepted the Christian faith. 

At station after station halts are made 
at places ideally situated from the point 
of view of any one seeking a lovely valley 
retreat in which a summer holiday may be 
spent within sight of the distant snow- 
capped mountains. On innumerable 
heights along the line there are excellent 
hotels and sanatoriums. Several of these 
are segregated for invalids, who invariably 
benefit by the pure and bracing air of the 
mountains, while others are kept open 
during the whole, or part, of the winter 
for the accommodation of ski-runners, 
who find good sport on the slopes of the 
valley. In the woods on the sides of the 
mountains much tunber is felled in the 
autumn, and, after being dragged down 
to the river over the winter snow, is 
floated down to the coast in summer. 



AROUND MT BIRTHPLACE 43 

As we continue our journey north- 
ward, the large old farms with their im- 
mense log buildings are most apparent. 

The Englishmen call them gentlemen's 
houses. One writes: 

" Here one need not think of the 
purely architectural, which however, as 
at Bjolstad, Sandbu, Bjornstad and 
Tofte, is of great interest. The very 
position of the principal building on 
the hill, and its large rooms and 
broad stairs, show that those who have 
lived there have been great. It is 
here, indeed, that the oldest families in 
the country live; historians have nothing 
to put forward against the saying that the 
descendants of the Norwegian mediseval 
nobility live here. The Gudbrandsdal 
farmer himself claims to be descended 
from the founder of the Norwegian king- 
dom, Harald Haarfagre; and it is a fact 
that a more aristocratic and finely formed 
type than these it would be difficult to find 
anywhere. Here, too, one meets with the 
fine feeling of the true aristocrat; to re- 
ceive tourists well is almost less a matter 
of business than of honor. The old houses 
that opened their doors to travelers a 



44 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

hundred years ago, still do so. When 
strangers came, they were hospitably re- 
ceived; the old Norwegian royal houses 
opened their doors to them. They were 
so large that nothing new needed to be 
built; nor did the valley adopt new cus- 
toms; for the old were so good, that 
strangers have ever since been well satis- 
fied with them." 

The road through Gudbrandsdalen is 
excellent, and the landscape is grand both 
in beauty and variety. 

We must stop once more on our way at 
the historic spot Kringen near Otta. This 
is the Glencoe of Norway. 

There you can see a monument with the 
following inscription: 



''Here Colonel George Sinclair was 
shot, August 26th, 1612/" 

In that year the great king of Sweden, 
Gustavus Adolphus, hired foreign mer- 
cenaries to ravage Norway's territory. 
Colonel Sinclair, who came from Scot- 
land, landed at Veblungsnes in Romsdal 
and proceeded up to Gudbrandsdalen. 



AROUND MY BIRTHPLACE 45 

Under the leadership of Bailiff Lauritz 
Gram the brave peasants of Gudbrands- 
dalen armed themselves as best they 
could. The peasants from the parishes 
of Lesje, Vaage, Fron, and Ringebu, 
gathered at the narrow mountain pass, 
Kringen, near the river Laugen, to await 
the arrival of the enemy. The advance 
guard was allowed to pass ; but on the ar- 
rival of the main body, with Colonel Sin- 
clair himself, the Norwegians suddenly 
attacked the Scotchmen. They were sur- 
prised by the farmers on the hillside, who 
rolled logs and boulders down upon them, 
either killing the Scotchmen with their 
crude weapons or driving them into the 
river. The advance guard was then over- 
taken and killed, with the exception of 
sixty, who were taken prisoners. These 
were kept in a barn over night and in the 
morning they were massacred in cold 
blood. 

Thus the whole Scotch army of nine 
hundred men was annihilated by three 



46 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

hundred Norwegian peasants. Not one 
man, it is said, escaped. 

At Kvams Church a grave is still 
pointed out as being that of Colonel Sin- 
clair. 

The farther north we travel in Gud- 
brandsdalen, the more the landscape as- 
sumes the character of a mountain-val- 
ley. 

Passing Otta and Vaage we arrive at 
the parish of Lom, where I was born. 

This parish is located away up under the 
snow-line, where the days are so short in 
the winter that the sun does not find time 
to rise high enough to show itself; but 
during the short summer, " Old King 
Day " seems to make up for lost time, for 
then it hardly takes time to set. The 
summer nights in Norway are very beau- 
tiful. They are so light that one may sit 
out-of-doors and read until one or two 
o'clock in the morning. At this time sun- 
set and sunrise follow close in each other's 
track, and the short summer in Norway's 




FOSSBERQ AT THE FoOT OF LOMSEGGEN. 

Here the river Baevra gives up her name as she merges into eternal 
wedlock with the larger river Otta. 




LoMs Church. 

Part of it was erected 1115 a.d. It is renowned for its beautiful 

wood-carvings. 



ABOUND MY BIRTHPLACE 47 

vales and mountains slips by as a beauti- 
ful dream. 

Such were the summers in my pictur- 
esque boyhood home in Norway. 

There on the hillside is the little farm 
and the small insignificant buildings of 
my birthplace. But they are dear to me, 
because it was my home, where I passed 
my care-free, happy childhood days. 

My home is located at the foot of the 
wild, snow-covered mountain range, J6- 
tunheim. Jotun means giant, and heim 
means home, so here is the home of the 
giants. If they built it according to their 
own fancy, they certainly must have pos- 
sessed supernatural skill and power. 

In Norse Mythology we are told that 
Valhalla (the hall where Odin received 
the souls of all heroes slain in battle), has 
540 gates. This is a small number com- 
pared to Jotunheim's legionary gates; 
for Jotunheim forms the greatest and 
grandest part of a Highland 900 miles 
long. 



CHAPTER IV; 

JOTUNHEIM 

A Peep Into the Home of the Giants 

Far above the busy life of the valley, 
there lies an immeasurably wide world, 
the mountain plateau. Many for whom 
the life of the valley became too narrow 
turned their steps thither. The genera- 
tion to which these belonged is now dead, 
the old reindeer-hunters and fishermen, 
who always lived upon the plateau, sum- 
mer and winter, even when every one else 
had gone down to the valley. They could 
live nowhere else, these free men of the 
plateau, for they felt the attraction of the 
mountains as no others did. Up there the 
air is lighter and the view wider. The sun 
goes late to rest, and tinges the glaciers 
and snow-peaks with crimson in the glow 

of evening; and while the valley still lies 

48 



JOTUNHEIM 49 

in twilight shadow, the mountain plateau 
shines in the golden radiance of the rising 
sun. He who does not know the moun- 
tain plateau, does not know Norway. It 
is only when one has looked from one of 
its peaks over what might be a sea petri- 
fied in the midst of a hurricane, that one 
understands the mysteries that bind the 
heart to Norway, to the grand beauty of 
the mountains. 

Broken only by a few valleys, the 
mountain plateau begins at Hardanger in 
the north, and clothed in its glacier- 
mantle reaches the rocky wall of the Hal- 
lingskarv. North of Valdres lies Jotun- 
heim, north of Gudbrandsal Dovre with 
Snehaetten (7,613 feet) and Rondane, and 
finally, north of the Dovre Mountains the 
peaks of Troldheim. Of these mountain 
districts, Jotunheim, between Valdres, 
Gudbrandsdal and Sogn, is the one which 
possesses the finest, highest mountains 
and the grandest scenery. Galdhopiggen 
(8,400 feet) is the highest European 



50 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

mountain north of the Carpathians, the 
Alps and the Pyrenees; it rises from the 
ice-filled plateau of the Gald summits. 
East of Galdhopiggen lies its neighbor, 
Glittertind (8,377 feet), only a few feet 
short of it in height, and much more beau- 
tiful and more majestic, with its shining 
white, snow-clad sides glittering in the 
sun. Without including the highest part 
of the Jotunheim round the Gald sum- 
mits, its mountains fall naturally into 
eight small gToups, with heights of be- 
tween 5,900 and 8,200 feet. In the north- 
west stand Lomseggen and the Hestbrae 
crests like a great wall. Toward Sogn 
there are a series of mountain districts, 
whose highest points are Skagastolstin- 
derne and Honmgerne; and here the 
Utladal, the wildest of all the ravines of 
the Jotunheim, runs down to Aardal in 
Sogn. The most frequented part of the 
Jotunheim is perhaps that in which lie the 
three mountain lakes, Gjende (six and 
one-half square miles, 3,260 feet above 



JOTUNHEIM 51 

sea-level) ; Tyin (fourteen and one-half 
square miles, 3,536 feet above sea-level), 
and Bygdin (eighteen square miles, 3,483 
feet above sea-level), surrounded by 
snow-mountains. One can stand on 
the ridge of Besseggen, and look down 
into Gjende on the one side and Bess 
Lake on the other. 

We might fancy that it was difficult 
to gain access to this mountain world, 
and so it was for a long time. Reindeer- 
hunters, drovers and fishermen reigned 
alone in the land above the saeters, in the 
region where no permanent human 
dwelling is found. Now all is changed. 
In two days one can reach the Jotunheim 
through the Gudbrandsal from Chris- 
tiania. Since 1871, much has been done 
to make these mountains easily acces- 
sible, and the efforts have been exceed- 
ingly successful. The traveler can now 
go everywhere, either with experienced 
guides or by clearly indicated paths. In 
many places tourist huts have been 



52 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

erected, where the benefits of civili- 
zation may be enjoyed. Even close to 
Galdhopiggen a hut has been built, 
Gjuwass Hut, where one can sleep be- 
neath a roof at a height of 6,209 feet 
above sea-level. The summits, glaciers 
and lakes of the Jotunheim are now 
visited during two months of every sum- 
mer by more tourists than almost any 
other part of Norway. 

But when the short weeks are past, and 
the strangers have departed, the green 
lakes and the white glaciers lie there as 
before. There is nothing now to disturb 
the great stillness of the plateau, and the 
loneliness of the desolate moors between 
the points and peaks of the mountains ex- 
cept a solitary loon screaming before a 
storm, or a flock of reindeer running 
swiftly along the side of the mountain. 
Nature has once more entered into posses- 
sion of her sanctuary, which, for a brief 
space of time, sHe had hospitably opened 
to mankind. 



CHAPTER V 

FJELDS AND FALLS 

My home was surrounded on all sides 
by steep and rocky mountains, rising into 
peaks, which were always covered with 
snow. From these eternal glaciers de- 
scended a number of torrents. These 
formed our big, rough and roaring moun- 
tain river, Baevra. This furious, foaming 
river seemed to contain the white blood 
of the ice monsters, and yet these glaciers 
never grew smaller. The reason is that 
whenever the vapor condensed into rain 
down in the valley, it would form into 
snow around those cold mountain giants 
and the snow would in turn be trans- 
formed into ice. The erosion under these 
glaciers would constantly feed the tor- 
rents and the great river. 

About two miles from my home, this 

63 



54 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

river, Baevra, formed a roaring waterfall. 
This constant cataract would sing in dif- 
ferent voices according to the weather. 
Thus, old people could tell by the sound 
of the cataract what kind of weather there 
would be. Before snow or rain, the 
waterfall sang alto; before clear weather 
it had a high, cheerful tenor; while during 
the precipitation of either rain or snow it 
had a deep bass, and in clear weather it 
sang a mezzo-soprano, without ever get- 
ting off key. 

By this cascade is a small village, Foss- 
berg, and close by is our old church, par- 
sonage and public school. 

Our Sun-dial 

From our east windows we looked 
daily across the river at " The Giant's 
Face,'' a big black crag, which served as 
a sun-dial. When the shadow was down 
to the giant's eyes, it was ten o'clock a. m. 
and when the shadow had traveled down 
the length of his nose, it was exactly three 



FJELDS AND FALLS 55 

o'clock P. M. "Some nose!" with the 
rest of the face in proportion. 

Among such grandeur in Nature's 
temple the people became thoughtful and 
contemplative, for in the voice of vale and 
streamlet, and in the shadowy language 
of the engraven rock, they heard the voice 
of the God of Nature. 



CHAPTER VI 

RETURN OF THE SUN 

My home was so shut in by huge moun- 
tains that for four months we would never 
get the direct rays of the sun. Part of 
that time the sun was not seen at all; but 
then, as it rose a little higher and the day 
by small degrees grew longer, we could 
see the sun light up the tops of the moun- 
tains at midday. Then we would watch 
eagerly how far it would creep down the 
mountainside from day to day. Finally 
the rays reached the broad river, Otta, 
which is running through the valley. But 
we lived on the shady side of the valley 
and it would take a few days yet before it 
would reach our home. Finally we could 
see the bright reflection on the snow- 
covered trees in a grove at the lower part 

of the farm and now the older people 

56 



RETURN OF THE SUN 57 

\ 

could tell us just how many more days it 
would take before it would shine down 
through the big, open chimney and hearth 
and throw a streak of light on the floor — 
just for a minute or so. But we would 
watch eagerly for that minute and be 
ready to step into the sun-spot, because 
it meant good luck for the whole year if 
the sun would shine on you the first day 
it reached your house again. 

From that little mountain home I went 
out a child, to the first joyful excursions 
in the great pine and spruce forests and to 
the higher mountain plateaus with its 
reindeer and reindeer moss, its mountain 
torrents, its many glittering lakes full of 
big fat trout, and its innumerable moun- 
tain-peaks covered with perpetual snow. 
This wonderful, picturesque landscape I 
learned to love. Its beauty and grandeur 
surpass my description as much as the 
reality of yourself, as a person, surpasses 
your shadow. 

How often I used to saunter along the 



58 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

side of mountain streams, angling for 
trout, and observe the constant variety of 
deep and shallow places! Wherever the 
water is deep, there you have more or less 
of an eddy, and where it is shallow, there 
is a ripple. Why is it always so, and 
what makes the eddies and the ripples? 

In the eddy the trout is leaping and 
splashing, and on the shallow the ripple is 
laughing and dancing. 



CHAPTER VII 

OUR GAMES AND PLAY 

We had a splendid time as children, be- 
cause Norway is the " Playground of the 
North," All the summer was spent out 
in the open air, either herding sheep or 
goats in the mountains or looking after 
ponies and cows closer to our home. We 
also had a good time rowing and fishing. 

But the winter sport of skiing, skating, 
and tobogganing is by far the most ex- 
hilarating and enjoyable form of play. 

The children in Norway have games 

very much the same as children in other 

countries. Of course the girls have dolls 

and dolls' houses and dolls' tea-parties, 

like the girls of every land, and there are 

toys of every description in the shops. 

The peasant children have to provide 

their own playthings, and it is wonderful 

what an amount of amusement they can 

59 



60 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

get out of cows made from bones, and 
ships made out of bark. The real enjoy- 
ment is to be found, however, in outdoor 
games, and we had scores and scores of 
different ones. Many of these games are 
regular Folk Dances where singing and 
the " Ring Dance '' form an important 
part. As the name " Ring Dance " im- 
plies, the players join hands and dance 
round in a circle. 

Several games seem to be common in 
most countries; — "Blind Man's Buff," 
" Hunt the Slipper " and " Forfeits " are 
found nearly everywhere. Here is the 
Norse version of " Round and Round the 
Mulberry Bush," which in some parts is 
called " Round the Juniper Bush " : 

* ^ So we go round the juniper bush, the juniper 

bush, the juniper bush, 
So we go round the juniper bush early on 

Monday morning. 
This is the way we wash our clothes, wash our 

clothes, wash our clothes, 
This is the way we wash our clothes early on 

Monday morning. 



OVR GAMES AND PLAY 61 

''So we go round the juniper bush, the juniper 

bush, the juniper bush. 
So we go round the juniper bush early on 

Tuesday morning. 
This is the way we wring out our clothes, 

wring out our clothes, wring out our 

clothes, 
This is the way we wring out our clothes 

early on Tuesday morning.'' 

The washing operations proceed 
through the next three days of the week, 
with a verse to each day. Thus on 
Wednesday they hang up the clothes, on 
Thursday they mangle them, and on Fri- 
day iron them. Then on Saturday they 
scrub the floor, and on Sunday go to 
church. 

With each verse the children dance 
hand in hand round the imaginary juni- 
per bush, singing lustily, and illustrating 
the different actions of the washing 
operations. Finally, two and two and 
arm in arm, they promenade around, as 
if going to church, and generally prolong 
the walk while they sing the last verse a 
second time. 



62 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAW 

The Norwegian children are also fond 
of playing mock weddings in which the 
bride wears a crown and they all go in 
procession to the church where the minis- 
ter performs the ceremony. Some of the 
games peculiar to the children in Norway 
are: " Fire Patrol; " " Weaving of 
Homespun;" "Last Couple Out;'' 
" The Third Man in the Wind," etc. 

Every one is familiar with the game 
" London Bridge is Falling Down/' yet 
probably few are aware that the words 
are translated from an old Norse song, 
and fewer still could tell who broke down 
the bridge. The story goes that this was 
accomplished by King Olaf, afterwards 
known as St. Olaf. He and his Vi- 
kings had allied themselves with Ethel- 
red the Unready of England against the 
Danes, who held the Thames above Lon- 
don Bridge. The bridge itself, which in 
those days was a rough wooden structure, 
was densely packed with armed men, pre- 
pared to resist the advance of the com- 



OVB GAMES AND PLAY 63 

billed fleets. But Olaf drove his stout 
ships against it, made them fast to the 
piers, hoisted all his sails, got out his oars 
and thus succeeded in upsetting the 
bridge into the river, thereby securing vic- 
tory for Ethelred. This took place in 
Olaf 's younger days, while he was yet a 
Viking, and before he had gained the 
throne of Norway, 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE HERO, FRITHJOF THE VIKING 

{From Frith jo fs Saga) 

This is one of my favorite stories as 
told by my father. 

My father, a big, strong, and good- 
hearted man, was considered the most ex- 
cellent narrator of stories in the whole 
parish. 

He had traveled and read far more 
than the average person, and all who 
knew him considered his memory as 
phenomenal. 

His supply of stories seemed inexhaust- 
ible. I can remember as if it were yes- 
terday, how he would take me on his lap 
and ask what kind of a story I would like 
to hear. 

Young as I was, I was already familiar 

with many a story of good men and heroic 

deeds. 

64 



FRITH JOF THE VIKING 65 

The following about Frith j of the Vi- 
king was one of the stories that I would 
ask for very often. 

Then my father in a soft, musical voice 
and in a vivid, masterly manner would 
tell: 

" Well, you remember why Frithjof 
was called the Viking. Those people in 
the north who led a wild life of seafaring, 
adventure, and conquest were called Vi- 
kings. In those olden days it was consid- 
ered glorious to ride the ocean in their 
long, low boats, built like dragons, and 
invade and plunder in foreign countries. 
They had no kingdoms and considered 
the whole world theirs if they could only 
conquer it." 

Frith j of 's father, Thorsten, was King 
Bele's trusted counselor, and the King's 
only child, Ingeborg, was Frith j of 's girl 
friend and playmate. They had known 
and loved each other ever since they could 
remember, and indeed every one loved 
Ingeborg. 



66 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

Although she was the only child and a 
princess, she was not in the least spoiled, 
and she could wade a brook or climb a tree 
almost as well as Frith j of. 

They were both fair, with the blue eyes 
and the yellow hair of the Norse race; but 
the boy was like a young oak-tree and the 
girl like a rose. 

Ingeborg's hair fell in a shower of 
ringlets over her straight white frock and 
even far below the golden girdle. Her 
eyes were as blue and deep as the sky in 
spring, and her skin as pure as the petals 
of a white flower. 

The first wild strawberry that he spied 
in the spring, the first ripe fruit, and the 
first bear that he killed, all these Frith j of 
brought home as offerings to Ingeborg. 
And as they sat together by the fire or in 
the field. Frith j of told Ingeborg stories 
of the greatest of all gods, Odin, who 
lived with the happy gods and goddesses 
on the fair heights of Valhalla above the 
clouds, and of the Valkyries, the warrior 



FRITH JOF THE VIKING 67 

maidens, who watched over the battle- 
fields and carried the dead heroes to Val- 
halla's halls. 

These stories impressed Ingeborg so, 
that when she sat at her loom in the castle, 
she tried to weave pictures for Frith j of 's 
stories into her tapestry. But Frith j of, 
in Ingeborg's absence, wove dreams. 

He remembered his father's warning. 

" You must not think too much of In- 
geborg," Thorsten said. " She is the 
daughter of a king, and you are only the 
son of a Viking and have nothing but a 
life of seafaring to look forward to in 
jnanhood. No good can come of your af- 
fection for a princess ; Thor, the Thunder 
god, avenges such misplaced love." 

But Frithjof said to himself, " Inge- 
borg is going to be my bride in spite of 
the great Thor. I shall make myself 
worthy of her and win her; even if the 
thunder breaks on my head, nothing shall 
part us." That was his dream. 

So Frithjof grew up to be a brave, 



68 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

noble young man, and suddenly he found 
himself m possession of his father's estate, 
with great wealth in the cellars, garrets, 
and storerooms. It was a great, beauti- 
ful homestead, with hills and valleys and 
woods stretching for miles each way, and 
a hundred lakes and streams in which the 
deer and elk drank. Sheltered pastures 
fed the great flocks of kine and sheep, and 
the stables held more than a score of 
fiery steeds, shod in polished steel and 
having red ribbons braided in their manes. 

But of all that he had inherited, the 
three greatest treasures were a sword, a 
bracelet, and a ship. 

This sword was so swift and sure that 
it had been called the brother to the 
lightning. 

The dwarfs had forged and tempered 
it. This sword had a gold hilt and a blade 
the steel of which was blue in times of 
peace, but glowed with the light of a 
thousand red rubies when there was need 
for it to do battle in the cause of right. 



FEITHJOF THE VIKING 69 

This weapon was dreaded by every one 
far and wide through the north. 

The bracelet was of purest gold, very 
broad and large, so that it fitted on Frith- 
jof's brawny arm. 

It was said to have been welded by 
Lame Wouland, the smith of the gods of 
the north. On it were engraved the 
twelve immortal mansions of the sky in 
which the Sun god rested on his journey 
through the heavens during the twelve 
months of the year. (This corresponds 
to the twelve signs of the zodiac.) The 
clasp of the bracelet was a ruby of enor- 
mous size, and whoever wore the bracelet 
was said to be safe from harm, — even 
from such danger as the tempest, and the 
magic spells of trolls and goblins. 

But the most valuable of the three 
treasures was the Viking ship, Ellida. It 
had been sailed by both Thorsten and his 
father. 

People said that the shapely oak tim- 
bers which made the sides were neither 



70 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

nailed nor joined, — but had grown to- 
gether. The ship was long and sinuous 
of form like a sea-serpent, rising at the 
prow in the graceful curve of a neck and 
head, with a wide open, fiery red mouth. 
The sides were painted in blue and gold, 
and at the stern a mighty tail uncoiled it- 
self in silver-scaled rings. It had black 
wings, tipped with scarlet, and when they 
were unfurled the ship, Ellida, could sail 
faster than the eagle flies and outdistance 
a storm that would have crushed any 
other Viking ship. 

When Frith j of 's warriors in shining 
armor filled her decks, Ellida rode the 
waves like a floating castle. Her fame 
and beauty were as boundless as the seas. 

Frith j of was now not only rich and 
powerful; but also very brave and true. 
Ingeborg, too, had grown from a child to 
a young woman, as beautiful and full of 
grace as had been the promise of her girl- 
hood. Her father had died, and her 
brother, Helge, was king in his stead, so 



FRITH JOF THE VIKING 71 

Frithjof went to him and asked for Inge- 
borg's hand in marriage. He told King 
Helge how he and Ingeborg had loved 
each other from childhood, and that he 
now had power and riches, with which to 
serve the King. 

But King Helge was only angry at the 
request. 

" It can never be," he said. " My sis- 
ter comes of a kingly line and you are 
only a Viking. King Ring of Norway 
has asked Ingeborg to come to his court 
as queen and I have given him my per- 
mission for the marriage." 

Helge was a coward, who had been 
terrified by the armies that King Ring 
sent to threaten him if he refused Inge- 
borg's hand. 

And although King Ring was an old 
man, Helge imprisoned Ingeborg in a 
temple in the woods in order to keep her 
away from Frithjof. Here she sat day 
after day, trying to sort the gold and sil- 
ver threads for her embroidery frame, but 



72 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

she was not able to thread her needle, be- 
cause her eyes were so blinded with 
tears. Frithjof knew nothing about King 
Ring nor about Ingeborg's imprison- 
ment. 

He might never have seen her again, 
but her younger brother told him of the 
place where she had been hidden. As 
soon as he learned this, Frithjof set sail 
on his dragon ship for the shores where 
the temple stood. 

Thinking that King Ring was a hand- 
some, young, and wealthy king, Frithjof 
said to himself, " Perhaps she wishes to be 
a queen." 

But Ingeborg greeted Frithjof just as 
joyfully as she had when they played to- 
gether, and she told him that there was no 
one in the world she cared for as much as 
her old playmate. 

Frithjof put his magic bracelet on her 
arm and she promised never to take it off 
unless she no longer loved him. 

This love inspired Frithjof so that he 



FRITH JOF THE VIKING 73 

returned to King Helge and begged him 
to make Ingeborg happy. Then King 
Helge's anger was very great, and thus 
he spoke: 

" As a punishment I shall banish you 
from our land. There is an earl, who 
lives west of here in the Orkney Islands, 
and for years he has not paid his tribute 
to my court. Set sail and collect this 
tribute. If you return without it you 
shall be punished by death." 

No sooner had Frith j of started on this 
voyage than King Helge summoned the 
trolls to stir up such a storm at sea that 
not even the wonderful ship, Ellida, 
could weather it. 

The day became suddenly as dark as 
night, and the sea-gulls began to cry. 
The waves rolled up toward the black sky 
— ^that was streaked red with lightning. 
The sea seemed to yawn to the very bot- 
tom, and big hail rattled down on the 
deck of the ship. 

Frith j of steered straight ahead, for he 



74 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

felt that nothing could harm the Viking 
ship in which he rode. 

But the beams creaked and the masts 
bent, and seas — mountain high — sub- 
merged it. 

" This is not a storm from Valhalla/* 
Frithjof cried at last. " There is witch- 
craft in it!'' 

He climbed to the top of the tallest 
mast, and looking intently for a long 
time, he caught a glimpse of something 
in the distance. It looked like a floating 
island; but as it came nearer, he saw that 
it was a giant whale, and on its back were 
two trolls who had been summoned by 
King Helge to rouse the sea to such a 
pitch of fury. 

" Save me from this witchcraft, my 
good Ellida! '' Frithjof cried, speaking to 
the ship as if it could understand his 
words. And it did understand. Brav- 
ing the storm, the dragon ship plunged 
in the direction of the whale and cut the 
creature in half, and the trolls disap- 



FRITH JOF TEE VIKING 75 

peared, drowned in the trough of the 
sea. 

Then the wind died away and the water 
was as smooth as glass. Frithjof had a 
peaceful voyage to the Orkney Islands. 

With his magic sword he overcame the 
watchman from the earl's palace and the 
earl, as soon as he saw him, welcomed 
Frithjof, because he had known Thors- 
ten, his father. 

" I will pay no tribute to King Helge,'' 
the earl said, " but here is a bag of gold 
to reward the son of my friend, the noble 
Viking, Thorsten." And he feasted 
Frithjof and kept him in his castle until 
the winter was over and it was fair 
weather for the return voyage. 

There was blue in the sky, a touch of 
green in the fields, and much joy in Frith- 
jof 's heart as he set sail. The winds were 
favorable, and he could hear Ingeborg's 
voice in the singing of the waves. 

The ship almost flew until it reached 
the shore where Ingeborg had been im- 



76 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

prisoned. Here Frith j of landed and 
hastened through the woods to the temple, 
but Ingeborg was not there. She was 
now King Ring's queen. The temple 
was in ruins. Frithjof s beautiful home 
at Balestrand, Sogn, had been burned to 
the ground, and when he arrived at 
Helge's castle. Frith j of found that the 
magic bracelet of gold had been torn 
from Ingeborg's arm and put on a statue 
in the courtyard. 

When Frith j of saw this he became so 
angry that he went into the King's palace, 
and when Helge reached out his hands for 
the tribute, Frith j of delivered the bag of 
gold with such force that he knocked all 
the King's teeth out. The King sum- 
moned his warriors ; but they did not dare 
to fight the great and good Frith j of. 
He was now banished from his native 
land. 

For several years the good ship Ellida 
carried this noble Viking to all the for- 
eign lands, where he gained fame and 



FRITH JOF THE VIKING 77 

fortune. But he felt homeless and lonely 
for Ingeborg. 

At last it was the blessed Christmas. 
King Ring was celebrating the Yuletide 
in his Danish kingdom, and by his side 
was Queen Ingeborg. 

She was hardly as merry as one ought 
to be at Christmas time. She could not 
forget her playmate and lover, Frith j of, 
the Viking, who she thought had forgot- 
ten her. 

The castle was decked with greens, the 
banqueting tables were loaded with 
roasted meats and pastries and sweets, 
and no one was turned away from King 
Ring's door, for he was a very kind- 
hearted old man. 

Suddenly, a stranger appeared at the 
feast. He was different in appearance 
from any one of the other guests. He 
was apparently an old man, big and bent, 
leaning on a staff. From head to foot he 
was wrapped in a bear's pelt. He sat 
down close to the door, where the poor sat 



78 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY. 

in those days, and the company whispered 
jokes to each other about him. 

One of the courtiers as he passed by 
pointed his finger at him. Then Frith- 
jof rose, took the courtier as if he were a 
plaything, raised him to the ceilmg, made 
him turn a somersault in the air and then 
put him down nicely on his feet. 

King Ring noticed the commotion and 
asked the stranger kindly, "Who are 
you? " 

Frith j of answered, " I beg your par- 
don. King Ring, I did not come here to 
disturb your Christmas peace; but this 
courtier made fun of me. I just twirled 
him round in the air and put him down 
on his feet again without doing him any 
harm." 

King Ring bade the warriors not to pay 
any attention to this incident. Then he 
beckoned for the stranger to come to the 
table. 

Just then the Christmas boar was being 
brought in. 



FRITH JOF THE VIKING 79 

The boar was the emblem of the Sun 
god, who gathers strength at Yuletide to 
overcome the winter giants, — ^frost, ice, 
and snow. 

The boar was decorated with wreaths 
and evergreens and had an apple in its 
mouth. It was so huge that four picked 
men carried it on their shoulders. As the 
bearers set the huge platter down, all the 
guests — including the stranger — ^bowed 
their heads. 

When they raised their heads they be- 
held a strange sight. The shaggy bear's 
pelt had fallen from the stranger's head 
and showed a wealth of golden locks. He 
wore a blue velvet cloak, and beneath it 
could be seen a rich hunting suit and a 
silver belt engraven with pictures of the 
hunt. 

The Queen's pale cheeks flushed, for 
Frith j of stood before her, as tall as Thor 
and as fair as any Viking in the North- 
land. 

Frith j of had come in this disguise to 



80 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

King Ring's court, because he longed so 
much to see Ingeborg. And the old King 
grew fond of him, for he could tell stories 
of his voyages in his dragon ship, skate 
more gracefully than any one else, and 
sing the wild sagas of the North. He 
was daring and noble, too, in all he did. 

One day King Ring and the Queen 
were driving over the fjord to a wedding. 
They had a fast horse, and Frithjof , on his 
skates, was racing with them. But he 
could skate so fast that every once in a 
while he would amuse himself by carving 
Ingeborg's name in the ice with his skates 
until they caught up with him. Pres- 
ently he warned the King that the ice was 
too weak; but the King drove on. Sud- 
denly the ice broke, and the horse, King 
and Queen plunged into the icy water. 
But Frithjof grasped the horse's head by 
the bit and held him up by the left hand, 
and with one superhuman pull with the 
right hand he lifted the sleigh with the 
King and Queen from the water. 



FRITH JOF THE VIKING 81 

The King rewarded him with his own 
gold bracelet, and said, " I do not believe 
that even Frith j of the Viking could have 
taken such a lift/' "Well," said the 
stranger, "now you have seen Frithjof 
doit." 

Although this was the first time that 
Frithjof had given his right name — (in 
order not to embarrass Ingeborg), — ^yet 
the King had suspected ever since the first 
evening in the castle that this giant could 
be none other than Frithjof. 

Spring came, and at King Ring's court 
we still find Frithjof. He loved Inge- 
borg's little boy as if he were his own son. 
The lad looked every inch a Viking. His 
yellow curls falling over his broad shoul- 
ders formed a fine setting for the beauti- 
fully formed face with the pure white 
skin, rosy cheeks and blue eyes; while his 
dress of skins showed his strong limbs and 
arms. 

On a beautiful spring day a hunting 
party was formed. Queen Ingeborg rode 



82 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

with the huntsmen. She was graceful as 
a summer cloud, so lightly did she sit 
upon her white horse. 

Frith j of rode near the King and to- 
ward noon the party stopped to rest in a 
forest glade. Frithjof spread his mantle 
on the ground that the King might rest 
on it, and as the old King slept a great 
temptation came to the Viking. Frithjof 
was one of those heroes of the Northland 
who was able to understand the language 
of the birds. As he sat there in the woods 
beside the sleeping King, he heard a voice 
say: 

" Strike the King and kill him. Now is 
your chance. Then you can take Inge- 
borg and her little son for your own." 

This was the voice of a blackbird, and 
as soon as Frithjof heard it, he threw his 
sword far away in order not to be over- 
come by the temptation. 

But when he threw his sword, he heard 
another voice say: 

" Do not harm the old King. The gods 



FRITH JOF THE VIKING 83 

do not permit the killing of an unarmed 
man." This was the voice of a white 
dove. 

So Frith j of only kept guard over the 
King, who soon stirred and opened his 
eyes. 

He had not been asleep; he had only 
pretended slumber to test Frith j of, and 
behind each tree he had stationed an 
armed soldier ready to come to his rescue 
if necessary. 

But King Ring had found Frithjof 
true, honorable and worthy. Each day 
the King grew more feeble, and at last he 
was not even able to ride to the hunt. 

One day he called Frithjof to him and 
said, " Soon I shall depart to live in the 
halls of Valhalla. I wish to leave Inge- 
borg and our little son in your care. 
When I am gone, my kingdom, my queen, 
and my son are to be yours." 

So there came a day when the Vikings 
and nobles assembled to give honor to 
King Frithjof. He stood in their midst 



84 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

with the fair Ingeborg by his side, and her 
golden-haired little lad raised high on his 
shield. 

" Long live the King! " came the sHout 
from the assemblage. Frith j of, the Vi- 
king, through his integrity, valor, and 
patience, had come into his kingdom. 



CHAPTER IX 

CONFIRMATION 

The children in Norway are required 
by law to study religion in the public 
schools every day for about seven years. 
During the seventh year they must also 
receive religious instruction from the 
Minister of the Gospel. With him they 
study one day a week. This, as a rule, 
is during the summer months. Then they 
have to review their catechism and a Bible 
history. The minister may also add lec- 
tures on Church history and other sub- 
jects. 

This constitutes the children's prepara- 
tion for Confirmation. The Confirma- 
tion is a public examination in the church, 
with the minister as examiner. 

Every person in Norway who belongs 
to the State Church, which is the 

Lutheran Church, is required by law to 

86 



86 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

be baptized and confirmed. In the 
spring, when it was cold, the confirma- 
tion class met in the old parsonage. 
Here was an extremely large, airy hall 
with numerous small window-panes in 
sashes of lead. The seats consisted of 
many rows of long benches. One-half of 
these seats were occupied by the boys, 
and on the opposite side and facing the 
boys, sat the girls. The pastor would 
then be seated at a small table in the 
middle of the room, or he would pace 
up and down the aisle between the boys 
and the girls. 

Most of the ministers in tHe State 
Church were benevolent, good-natured 
men, with a pleasant smile and a fatherly 
interest in the welfare of their members. 
But the one who confirmed me was rather 
a contrast to the ordinary type. 

It would not be nice to tell his name 
and also his peculiarities, for although he 
is dead, some of his relatives might read 
this. Somehow he was always nice to me. 



CONFIRMATION 87 

therefore my remarks concerning him are 
not prompted by any ill feelings. 

In order to give a truthful story, I 
might say that this minister was not re- 
nowned — but rather notorious for his an- 
ger, his strength, and his penuriousness, 
which made him almost a miser. One of 
his wealthy uncles had paid for his educa- 
tion, and thus he became a minister; — al- 
though people said that he seemed more 
fit for the business of his father — ^who was 
a butcher. The only good word I ever 
heard about him was by my father, who 
said that he could preach logical sermons 
and was very well acquainted with the 
Bible. Both children and adults were 
afraid of him. Never shall I forget the 
first time we, as a confirmation class, met 
with him. It was an extraordinarily 
large class, including the children from 
three parishes. We were all on time. 
There was perfect silence in the room. 
Every child sat with staring eyes watch- 
ing the door, as if they expected a 



88 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

ghost to enter. At last the door opened 
and a rather small, nervous man with 
large watery eyes, thin gray hair and 
full beard, walked briskly into the room 
and placed some books on a small table. 
He had previously obtained a list of our 
names from the school teachers in each 
district. 

From these lists the minister com- 
menced the roll call for each respective 
district. The children were so scared 
that they answered " Present " in all 
kinds of trembling voices. After the roll 
call there was perfect silence like the calm 
before a heavy storm. The suspense was 
awful, for now the examination would be- 
gin, and what would he ask, and who 
would be called on first, and would he 
send us home if we made an incorrect an- 
swer? If he did, it would be an everlast- 
ing shame and it would not end with the 
shame, he would make us go and read for 
him at least one year more than the rest 
of our comrades. 



CONFIRMATION 89 

These meditations were stopped ab- 
ruptly by the pastor's loud, sharp voice 
as he asked a girl a question. The girl 
was so frightened that she could only 
blush and cough, and instantly he turned 
around and asked me the same question. 
I rose and stood like a soldier at " atten- 
tion " while I commenced to give the an- 
swer in a low, trembling voice. He told 
me to read louder so that all could hear it, 
and as I followed his instructions and re- 
cited very well the Bible story about Jo- 
seph and his brethren, he seemed rather 
pleased, although he stopped me now and 
then and added things that were not in 
our text-books. 

When I came home my father wanted 
me to tell in detail all about our first 
meeting. Among other things I also told 
that the pastor did not have a text-book 
in Bible history, but that he evidently ex- 
pected us to learn the whole Bible. 

" If that is the case," said my father, 
" you who can learn so easily had better 



90 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

memorize all the chapters in the Bible 
covering the corresponding lesson in your 
Bible history." This I had to do, and 
every week my father would hear me re- 
cite chapter after chapter from the Bible. 
Learning from the class that I was the 
only one who made all this extra prepara- 
tion, I wanted to stop it, but my father 
made me keep it up all the time imtil con- 
firmation. 

My father's object was to have me 
stand highest in the church aisle on Con- 
firmation Sunday. This was regarded as 
the greatest honor obtainable for a child 
at that age. It was not altogether vanity 
that prompted my father in urging me on 
for the highest place. One reason was 
that I was the youngest in the class and 
unless my scholarship were extra good, 
this minister would certainly not let me 
pass. Secondly, I had been reading with 
the minister only six months, and the for- 
mer year he had flunked the whole class, 
stating that he would not confirm any one 



CONFIRMATION 91 

unless he read with him two years. But 
I wanted to be confirmed that fall in or- 
der to attend a high school which would 
be in session only two years more at a 
place so close to my home that I could 
afford to attend it. 

My father had recently lost the farm 
and all he had by being kind-hearted 
enough to endorse papers for a merchant 
and a couple of farmers, all three of them 
going bankrupt at once. At this time 
my father was already an old man, and I, 
although the youngest child, — thirteen 
and a half years of age — ^was henceforth 
obliged to earn all I spent. 

Of the preacher's fiery temper I shall 
give you only one illustration. It was in 
the summer when the class met in the 
large church. The minister, as usual, lost 
his temper, and holding in his left hand 
an old book with poor and time-worn bind- 
ing, he hit it so hard with his right hand 
that every leaf of the book flew, as if 
swept by a storm, over the pews, under 



92 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

the pews, and through the aisles. Then 
he made a flying trip down to the rear of 
the church, opened the door wide and took 
a couple of the big boys, who were poor 
students, carried them one in each hand 
to the door and threw them down the 
steps. One of the girls commenced to 
gather up some of the leaves of his book, 
but when I shook my head at her she 
dropped them. The minister paced up 
and down the aisles. The children 
watched in perfect silence him and my- 
self. They expected me to be the 
leader in almost everything, but I had 
made up my mind that unless he asked 
us to pick up the leaves of his book, 
he could do it himself. And so, at 
last, he picked up those in the aisle and 
left the rest. The anger flashed like light- 
ning out of his big eyes as he announced 
with a voice of thunder that it was lunch- 
time, but that the two fellows he had 
thrown out should not have anything to 
eat. When we told them, they started to 



CONFIRMATION 93 

weep, because they were poor and very 
hungry, as they had been up early in the 
morning and walked eight miles to the 
church. 

We all carried our own lunches, and as 
it was private property the pastor had 
nothing to say about the matter. There- 
fore, I offered to go into the church and 
bring it out to them. They were all 
afraid, but I told them that I would take 
the responsibility in case it should reach 
the minister's ears and so I fetched them 
their lunches. Nothing more was heard 
about this incident. 

The reason that I was less afraid of the 
minister than the rest of them w^as because 
the pastor had a holy respect for my fa- 
ther. The peasants wanted to discharge 
him, but that would be a very difficult case 
to carry into court, as the minister and all 
the civil officers were appointed by the 
King. This means that the appointments 
were actually made by the respective 
State departments and approved by the 



94 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

King. Therefore, a government attor- 
ney would be afraid to plead a case 
against a minister in the State Church. 
On this account the parishioners begged 
my father to plead the case for them, but 
he refused, stating that he was getting 
old, and the minister had done him no 
harm. And furthermore, their evidences 
against him were not clear enough to hold 
in the higher courts. Thus the parson 
continued to hold his position. 




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CHAPTER X 

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN NORWAY 

Education is of common interest to 
young and old. Therefore, although our 
space is limited, we shall give as complete 
a description as possible of the excellent 
educational system in Norway. This 
country, together with Sweden, Denmark, 
and Finland, can boast of the fact that 
there is hardly any illiteracy. 

That these countries rank foremost in 
the world in regard to universal education 
has its immediate cause in the Protestant 
reformation. 

The Lutheran Church, which is the 
State Church in Norway, requires confir- 
mation before a person can enter into 
matrimony, or participate in the social, 
political, and religious life of the country. 

But neither a boy nor a girl can be con- 

95 



96 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

firmed until he or she has finished an ele- 
mentary school course. 

Thus the Church and State have coop- 
erated admirably to prevent adult illiter- 
acy, and for more than two hundred years 
they have had an excellent public school 
system; and for almost one hundred years 
they have had compulsory educational re- 
quirements. 

The small population of Norway is 
scattered over a very large area, thus mak- 
ing many districts sparsely settled. This 
makes it exceedingly difficult to organize 
the elementarv education for children. 
But education is highly prized by the 
people in general, and by united efforts 
they have managed to build up a complete 
system of education from the primary 
schools up to the University. The results 
of this achievement have been so excellent, 
that of late years educators from different 
countries have been studying and adopt- 
ing many points from the Norwegian 
school system. 



EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 97 

Owing to the fact that the great bulk 
of the Norse population resides in the 
rural districts, we find two great difficul- 
ties standing in the way of the children's 
education, namely, the scattered nature 
of the population and the lack of roads 
and means of communication. To over- 
come this, a law was passed in 1827, pro- 
viding that near each parish church a 
permanent elementary school should be 
established. But for many of the children 
it would be impossible to reach this per- 
manent school at the parish church, as 
they would either have to travel for miles 
over rugged mountain roads, or row over 
large sheets of water. 

The only means of bringing education 
to these children was by a system of 
traveling schoolmasters. These teachers 
went to a given centre for a few weeks at 
a time and gave instruction to the children 
collected from the neighboring farms, and 
then passed on to another district. In 
1837 we find that ninety-two per cent, of 



98 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

the country children were taught in these 
ambulatory schools ; but now less than two 
per cent, are thus taught. This shows, in 
spite of heavy obstacles, a remarkable 
development of the rural school system. 

Norway is divided into about six thou- 
sand school districts for elementary 
schools. Here the school age is from 
seven to fifteen in towns and eight to 
fifteen in rural districts. 

The course of instruction given is as 
follows: First Division (children seven 
to ten years) — The Christian religion, 
Norwegian language, arithmetic, writing, 
and singing. Second Division (children 
ten to fourteen years) — The same studies 
as above, with the addition of geography, 
elementary geometry, history (with les- 
sons in civics), botany, zoology and the 
elements of physics and the fundamental 
features of hygiene. In this latter study 
the effects and dangers of intoxicants are 
to be specially pointed out to the children. 
In addition, at least one of the following 



EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 99 

subjects must be taken: manual work 
(sloyd for boys and needlework for girls), 
drawing, and physical exercises, which in 
the case of boys may include elementary 
instruction in rifle-shooting. 

Religious instruction occupies a fore- 
most place. This is strictly in accordance 
with the State Church, the Evangelical 
Lutheran. There is, however, a '' con- 
science clause," and the children of dis- 
senters from the State Church may be 
wholly or partially exempted from reli- 
gious instruction, but as they form only a 
small fraction of the population there is, 
happily for Norway, no burning '' reli- 
gious difficulty " in the matter of educa- 
tion. 

The law is very strict concerning school 
attendance, and if the child is employed 
so as to prevent the proper preparation of 
lessons, the guilty party may be fined 100 
kroner (about $25.00). 

As a rule the parents take an active 
part in the supervision of the home studies 



100 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

of the children. This is very essential, as 
many of the children in the rural districts 
are obliged, for economic reasons, to help 
with the work, and thus they can attend 
school only every other day or on alter- 
nate weeks. 

Co-education is the rule in the sparsely 
settled country districts, but in the towns 
the sexes may also be taught sepa- 
rately. 

The Municipal Council in Christiania 
and other cities has an excellent method 
for providing wholesome food for the 
poor children during the winter. If it is 
demonstrated that the parents are unable 
to provide the necessary food for the chil- 
dren, then they are served meals free of 
charge. The other children can pay at 
the low rate of two cents and a half for 
each meal. 

In both town and country they have 
continuation schools. Then come Countv 
Schools (amtskoler) and People's High 
Schools. These latter are not unlike the 



EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 101 

country academies in America. These 
schools aim to give a more or less general 
cultural training to young people, who 
have passed the ordinary school age. 

The management of the primary 
schools is under the control of a local 
school board composed of one clergyman, 
one teacher, the president of the local 
council, or an alderman, and as many 
more members chosen from the municipal 
council as the council itself shall deter- 
mine. The school board elects the teach- 
ers, draws up the budget, provides for 
school supervision, and works out the de- 
tails in the courses of study. 

Secondary education laws underwent a 
complete revision in Norway in the year 
1896. Prior to this time the general man- 
agement of secondary schools had been 
committed to the care of the Church and 
the Department of Education; but the 
Act of 1896 provided for what is called an 
Education Council, which consists of a 
body of educational experts, who assist 



102 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

and advise the Department of Education 
in all matters concerning the schools. 

Through this arrangement, the elemen- 
tary schools were also more closely corre- 
lated with the secondary education. The 
secondary schools are now divided into 
the '' middelskole " and the gymnasium. 

These are defined as follows in the Act 
of 1896: "The middelskole" is a school 
for children which, in unison with the pri- 
mary school, gives its pupils a complete, 
thorough, general education, adapted to 
the receptive powers of children. 

The gymnasium is a young people's 
school, which, on the foundation laid in 
the " middelskole," leads to a complete 
higher general education, that may also 
serve as a basis for scientific studies. 
Both "middelskole" and gymnasium shall 
contribute to the religious and moral 
training of the pupils, and it should also 
be their common aim to develop the pu- 
pils both mentally and physically into 
competent young people. 



EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 103 

The middle schools take children be- 
tween eleven and fifteen years, and the 
courses include practically what is given 
in most American high schools. The 
middle school examination is very thor- 
ough, consisting both of written and oral 
work. 

The students who pass in this examina- 
tion may now enter the classical or liter- 
ary high schools (gymnasium), which 
prepares for the university and other 
higher educational institutions. 

A gymnasium used to have three lines ; 
but now there are usually two, the lan- 
guage-history line and the science line. 
The course is usually finished in three 
years, and the final examination is of 
great importance. Those who fail in 
their written work cannot participate in 
the oral examination, but the students 
who pass in both the written and oral 
work have finished " examen artium," and 
can proceed to the university without 
further examination. 



104 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

The secondary schools in Norway are 
co-educational, and women are now ad- 
mitted to the university, and they occupy 
many professional offices. Rural gymna- 
siums with a four year course may also 
give "examen artium," 

The university at Christiania, founded 
in 1811, forms the crown of Norway's 
educational system. This institution has 
about two thousand students and eighty 
professors and instructors. 

Many women avail themselves of a uni- 
versity training, and as universal suf- 
frage prevails, they have already had 
three women members of the parliament. 

The university is organized into five 
faculties: theology, law, medicine, philos- 
ophy, and science. 

The professional courses vary from 
four to seven years. The general man- 
agement of the university is under the 
ministry of public instruction, although 
the professors are appointed by the 
King. 



EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 105 

Tfie professional staff numbers among 
its members many men of international 
reputation, men who have done good work 
in scientific, historical, and linguistic 
fields of research. 

The tuition at this institution is free. 
The students are not hampered by any 
strict discipline. They may attend lec- 
tures or not just as they please. But 
there is a great day of reckoning, for the 
final examinations are long and difiicult 
and the censorship is very strict. In or- 
der to prepare for this, many of the stu- 
dents employ tutors and, in addition, they 
borrow lectures from their comrades, and 
" cram " nights and days. Many of them 
fail. 

Their great social centre is the Stu- 
dents' Union (Studenter Samfundet). 
Here lectures and musical evenings are 
given on Saturdays during the terms 
from September to May. 

Their manuscript paper "Avisen '' con- 
sists of satirical verses and various short 



106 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY^ 

articles. This is read aloud each Satur^ 
day evening at the students' gathering, 
and it occasions much amusement. 

When these young, gay students finish 
their courses and return to the rural dis- 
tricts as physicians, clergymen, or law- 
yers, they become very worthy and sedate 
members of society, and exercise that use- 
ful influence which the possession of a lib- 
eral education ought always to carry 
with it. 

Connected with the university in Chris- 
tiania are the University Library (about 
350,000 volumes), the Botanical Gardens, 
the Historical Museum, the Astronomical 
and Magnetic Observatory, the Meteoro- 
logical Institute, and the Biological Ma- 
rine Station (at Drobak). 

The hospitals of Christiania are also 
affiliated with the university. 

As for the development of the national 
consciousness, the university has been a 
most potent factor, and the contemporary 
leaders in politics, letters, the arts, and 



EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 107 

science claim the university of Christiania 
as their alma mater. 

This brief sketch of the educational sys- 
tem in Norway would be very incomplete 
without at least mentioning that they 
have an efficient system of technical insti- 
tutions and a higher technical school in 
Trondhjem, which might be called a 
Technical University. 

There are many technical night schools 
and also workingmen's colleges in Nor- 
way, where technical instruction is given 
in the form of lectures by scientific men, 
physicians, schoolmasters, and military 
men. The lectures are given in the even- 
ing and the principal expenses are shared 
by the State and the municipalities. 

Norway has eleven normal schools for 
the education of public school teachers. 
The excellent agricultural college at 
Aas, near Christiania, has raised the 
standard of both the entrance examina- 
tion and the course itself, so that it is now 
a regular Agricultural University. Con- 



108 WEEK I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

nected with it is the Government for- 
estry. 

They also Have excellent naval and mil- 
itary schools. For the training of artists, 
artistic craftsmen, and teachers of art, we 
have the Royal Art and Industrial School 
at Christiania, founded in 1818. 

An important institution is a High 
School in Home Economics, for the pur- 
pose of training teachers in this subject. 
It is a three-years' course, including one 
year of preparatory work. * 

There are also schools of industrial art 
for women, where fine needlework, weav- 
ing, and dressmaking are taught. A first- 
class music and organ school is supported 
by the Government at Christiania. 

Other indirect educational agencies are 
the Library and Philosophical Society at 
Christiania, which has charge of the 
Fridthjof Nansen fund for the advance- 
ment of science; the Royal Literary and 
Philosophical Society at Trondhjem, 
founded in 1760; the national society for 



EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 109 

the preservation of ancient Norwegian 
monuments, and the industrial art mu- 
seums at Christiania, Bergen and Trond- 
hjem. 

There are about six hundred and fifty 
libraries in the country, each containing 
from one hundred to ten thousand vol- 
umes ; but many more libraries are needed. 

The workingmen's colleges have done 
pioneer work in this field; but much more 
remains to be done. 

Let us hope that the Norse patriots 
who are responsible for the policies of this 
country will follow the suggestions of the 
great poet Wergeland, who said, " Bog- 
hylden er den stige, hvorpaa man bliver 
sin overmands lige." (The bookshelf is 
the ladder on which the inferior may climb 
and be equal to his superior.)' 



CHAPTER XI 

POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS AND FAIRY TALES 

We are told in a legend that the giants 
of old used Norway as a playground, and 
they have certainly left many wonderful 
playthings behind them. The great boul- 
ders were their baseballs, the lofty peaks 
their basket-balls, and the fjords their 
great swimming-pools. But, judging 
from the grandeur and beauty of the 
country, they must have been highly de- 
veloped in landscape architecture. Cer- 
tainly no land seems better suited to be a 
home for the creatures of popular super- 
stition than Norway. The frowning 
cliffs and sequestered valleys seem still, 
to the peasant, to be inhabited by the be- 
ings who figure in their mythology. Not 
that they believe all the folk-tales, but 

these are to them only figures of speech 

110 



POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS 111 

expressing in a vivid form some deeper 
truths. 

On the hills dwelt monsters, or trolls; 
in the valleys or beneath the earth dwelt 
elves and fairies. 

In the names of many places are to be 
found reminiscences of the belief in this 
race of giants and witches as in the name 
of the remarkable mountain chain in 
Romsdalen called TroUtinderne (The 
Trold's peaks). 

Troldwand (Trold or Witches' Lake), 
near one of the arms of the Jostedal 
glacier, is surrounded by rocky walls and 
reached through a deep and gloomy ra- 
vine. This is one of the many lakes that 
has a witch dwelling on its bottom, and 
many a hero has been known to descend 
in order to kill the ogress. 

Of " Troldkirker " (Trold-churches) 
there are very many. Sometimes you can 
see the brooms on which the witches ride 
at night to these meeting places. We 
have also " Troldstol " (Witches' Chair), 



112 WEEN 1 WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

"Troldfjord" X55^itches' Fjord), etc., 
etc. 

The hills above the city of Bergen were 
among the chief places in Europe which 
popular superstition fixed upon as the 
scenes for the celebrated Witches' Sab- 
bath, which was observed regularly. 




G UDBRANDSDALEN . 

Picturesque valley between Sorum and Garmo. 




Vaage Lake, Gudbrandsdalen. 
The building of this road cost about five dollars a foot. 



CHAPTER XII 

POPULAR NORSE TALES 

'' The Priest and the Clerk ^^ 

Once upon a time there was a priest, 
who was such a bully that he bawled out, 
ever so far off, whenever he met any one 
driving on the king's highway: 

" Out of the way, out of tHe way! 
Here comes the priest ! " 

One day when he was driving along 
and behaving so, he met the king himself. 

" Out of the way, out of the way! " he 

bawled a long way off. But the king 

drove on and kept the road; so that time 

it was the priest who had to turn his horse 

aside, and when the king came alongside 

of him, he said, " To-morrow you shall 

come to me to the palace, and if you can't 

answer three questions which I will set 

you, you shall lose hood and gown for 

your pride's sake." 

113 



114 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

This was something else than the priest 
was wont to hear. He could bawl and 
bully, shout, and behave worse than 
badly. All that he could do, but ques- 
tions and answers were out of his power. 

So he set off to the clerk who was said 
to be better in a gown than the priest him- 
self, and told him he had no mind to go to 
the king. 

For, as the saying goes, one fool can 
ask more than ten wise men can answer; 
and the end was, he got the clerk to go in 
his place. 

Yes! The clerk set off, and came to 
the palace in the priest's gown and hood. 
There the king met him out in the porch 
with crown and sceptre, and was so grand 
that he glittered and gleamed. 

"Weill Are you there?" said the 
king. 

Yes; he was there, sure enough. 

" Tell me first," said the king, " how 
far the east is from the west? " 

" Just a day's journey," said the clerk. 



POPULAR NORSE TALES 115 

" How is that? " asked the king. 

" Don't you know," said the clerk, 
" that the sun rises in the east and sets in 
the west, and he does it just nicely in one 
day." 

" Very well! '' said the king; " but tell 
me now what you think I am worth, as 
you see me stand here? '' 

" Well,'' said the clerk, " our Lord was 
valued at thirty pieces of silver, so I don't 
think I can set your price higher than 
twenty-nine." 

" All very fine! " said the king; " but 
as you are so wise, perhaps you can tell 
me what I am thinking about now? " 

'' Oh! " said the clerk; " you are think- 
ing it's the priest who stands before you, 
but so help me, if you don't think wrong, 
for I am the clerk." 

Be off home with you," said the king, 

and be you priest, and let him be clerk," 
and so it was. 






CHAPTER XIII 

'' THE HAEE AND THE HEIRESS " 

Once on a time there was a hare, that 
was frisking up and down under the 
greenwood tree. 

"Oh! hurrah! hip, hipi,, hurrah!" he 
cried, and leapt and sprang, and all at 
once he threw a somersault, and stood 
upon his hind legs. Just then a fox came 
slouching by. 

" Good-day, good-day," said the hare; 
" I'm so merry to-day, for you must know 
I was married this morning." 

" Lucky fellow you," said the fox. 

" Ah, no ! not so lucky after all," said 
the hare, " for she was very heavy- 
handed, and it was an old witch I got to 
wife." 

" Then you were an unlucky fellow," 

said the fox. 

116 



''TEE HAIR AND THE HEIRESS'' 117 

" Oh, not so unlucky either," said the 
hare, '' for she was an heiress. She had a 
cottage of her own/' 

" Then you were lucky after all," said 
the fox. 

" No, no! not so lucky either," said the 
hare, " for the cottage caught fire and was 
burnt, and all we had with it." 

" That I call downright unlucky," said 
the fox. 

" Ohy no; not so very unlucky after 
all," said the hare, " for my witch of a 
wife was burnt along with her cottage." 



CHAPTER XIV 

" THE SKIPPER AND OLD NICK " 

Once on a time there was a skipper 
who was so wonderfully lucky in every- 
thing he undertook; there was no one who 
got such freights, and no one who earned 
so much money, for it rolled in upon him 
on all sides, and, in a word, there Was no 
one who could make such voyages as he, 
for whithersoever he sailed he took the 
wind with him ; — nay ! men did say he had 
only to turn his hat and the wind turned 
the way he wished it to blow. 

So he sailed for many years, both in the 

timber trade and to China, and he had 

gathered money together like grass. But 

it so happened that once he was coming 

home across the North Sea with every sail 

set, as though he had stolen both ship and 

cargo; but he who wanted to lay hold on 

him went faster still. It was Old Nick, 

118 



''TEE SKIPPER AND OLD NICK'' 119 

for with him he had made a bargain, as 
one may well fancy, and that very day 
the time was up, and he might look any 
moment for Old Nick to come and fetch 
him. 

Well! the skipper came up on deck out 
of the cabin and looked at the weather; 
then he called for the carpenter and some 
others of the crew, and said they must go 
down into the hold and hew two holes in 
the ship's bottom, and when they had 
done that they were to lift the pumps out 
of their beds and drive them down tight 
into the holes they had made, so that the 
sea might rise high up into the pumps. 

The crew wondered at all this and 
thought it a funny bit of work, but they 
did as the skipper ordered; they hewed 
holes in the ship's bottom and drove the 
pumps in so tight that never a drop of 
water could come to the cargo, but up in 
the pumps themselves the North Sea stood 
seven feet high. 

They had only just thrown the chips 



120 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

overboard after their piece of work when 
Old Nick came on board in a gust of wind 
and caught the skipper by the throat. 

"Stop, Father!" said the skipper, 
" there's no need to be in such a hurry," 
and as he said that he began to defend 
himself and by the help of a marlin- 
spike to loose the claws which Old Nick 
had stuck into him. 

" Haven't you made a bargain that you 
would always keep the ship dry and 
tight? " asked the skipper. " Yes! you're 
a pretty fellow; look down the pumps, 
there's the water standing seven feet high 
in the pipe. Pump, devil, pump! and 
pump the ship dry, and then you may 
take me and have me as soon and as long 
as you choose.'' 

Old Nick was not so clever that he was 
not taken in; he pumped and strove, and 
the sweat ran down his back like a brook, 
so that you might have turned a mill at 
the end of his backbone, but he only 
pumped out of the North Sea and into the 



''TEE SKIPPER AND OLD NICK'' 121 

North Sea again. At last he got tired of 
that work, and when he could not pump a 
stroke more, he set off in a sad temper 
home to his grandmother to take a rest. 
As for the skipper, he let him stay a 
skipper as long as he chose, and if he isn't 
dead, he is still perhaps sailing on his 
voyages whithersoever he will, and twist- 
ing the wind as he chooses only by turn- 
ing his hat. 



CHAPTER XV 

NOESE MYTHOLOGY 

Mythology, as a study, is both pleas- 
ant and profitable. Mythology is a prod- 
uct of long periods of a people's intellec- 
tual development, in which old ideas have 
constantly been mixed with new concep- 
tions. Therefore you find in it, as in all 
old religious systems, that the ideas of the 
life hereafter are often vague, even con- 
tradictory. In the Norse mythology we 
can follow the march of the human mind 
forward to new light. 

Our knowledge of the heathen religion, 

called Norse Mythology, comes to us 

through the literary collections called 

Eddas. These Eddas were written by 

gifted Norsemen, who emigrated from 

Norway to Iceland. 

122 



NORSE MYTHOLOGY 123 

They tell us that origmally there was 
no heaven above nor earth beneath, only 
a bottomless pit with a fountain from 
which issued twelve rivers. The rivers, 
as they flowed from the fountain, froze 
into solid ice, and the bottomless pit was 
likewise filled with ice. 

Far to the south there was a world of 
mist, from which issued a warm wind 
which melted the ice in the frozen rivers. 
Vapors arose into the air and formed 
clouds, out of which was formed Ymir, 
the frost giant, and the cow Andhumbla. 
The latter nourished the giant by licking 
the salt and the hoarfrost from the ice. 

One day when the cow was licking the 
salt stone, the hair of a man appeared ; the 
next day she licked the stone a head ap- 
peared, and the third day an entire being. 
This was a god. He married the daugh- 
ter of a giant race, and unto them were 
born three sons — Odin (spirit), Vile 
(will) and Ve (holy). These three with 
their father, Bor, killed Ymir. The blood 



124 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

which flowed from his veins caused a del- 
uge which swept away all the giants ex- 
cept Bergelmer, who with his wife took 
refuge at the ends of the earth in a place 
called Jutunheim (home of giants). 

But of the body of Ymir, the gods cre- 
ated the earth. 

^^Of Ymir 's flesh 
"Was earth created, 
Of his blood the sea, 
Of his bones the hills, 
Of his hair trees and plants, 
Of his skull the heavens, 
And of his brows 
The gentler powers 
Formed Midgard for the sons of men, 
But of his brain 
The heavy clouds are 
All created.'' 

The gods provided, likewise, for day 
and night, the seasons, and plant-life. 
But the universe still lacked human be- 
ings, and, according to the legend, this is 
the way they were created: One day 



NORSE MYTHOLOGY 125 

Odin, Vile, and Ve started out together 
and walked along the seashore, where 
they found an ash (ask) and an elm (em- 
bla) hewn into the rough semblance of the 
human form. The gods gazed at first 
upon the inanimate wood in silent won- 
der, then Odin gave these logs souls, Vile 
bestowed motion and senses, and Ve con- 
tributed blood, fair complexions, and the 
power of speech. 

Midgard was assigned to this couple as 
their residence and this man Ask and his 
wife Embla became the progenitors of the 
Norsemen and all other human beings. 

Aesir was the collective name of their 
deities. They included Odin and his 
twelve sons or grandsons; and the 
Aesynia — namely Frigga, the wife of 
Odin, and her twelve subordinate god- 
desses. 

Odin, as befitted the all-father, the au- 
thor of gods and men, was characterized 
by the highest wisdom, knowledge, and 
skill. In order to gain all this wisdom he 



126 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

had sacrificed one of his eyes for the privi- 
lege to drink of Mimer's Well, the foun- 
tain of wisdom. 

Odin had also been hanging nine 
nights on a windy tree in order to dis- 
cover the Norse Runic alphabet, which is 
composed of sixteen letters. 

The first day of May was sacred to this 
god, and one day in each week is called by 
his Saxon name, Wodensday or Wednes- 
day. Aasgaard, the dwelling place of the 
gods, contains many gold and silver 
palaces, the most beautiful of all being 
Valhalla, the abode of Odin. Here 
seated upon his throne, Lidskjalv, and 
guarded on either side by wolves, he over- 
looks both heaven and earth. Valhalla is 
splendidly decorated with burnished 
weapons, the ceiling made of spears, the 
roof covered with bright shields, and the 
walls decorated with the armor and coats 
of mail of the warriors. To this hall the 
Valkyries (val — dead bodies on the field 
of battle, and kyria — to choose), bring the 



NOESE MYTHOLOGY 127 

dead warriors who fall on the field of bat- 
tle. The Valkyries select those who are to 
fall and be feasted and entertained with 
Odin in Valhalla, while those who die a 
natural death go to Hel in the under- 
world. Thor, the oldest son of Odin, was 
the war-god, preeminent for valor and 
strength. The thunder was the rumble 
made when he rode through the air with 
his goats, and the lightning was caused by 
the throwing of his hammer, M joiner, 
which hit anything he aimed at and al- 
ways returned to his hand of its own ac- 
cord. 

Thor's symbol was a hammer, and was 
modified by the early missionaries into the 
form of the cross, obviously in order to 
wean them from the ancient beliefs by 
gentle degrees. Both these symbols have 
always been sacred and protective marks, 
and used by the ignorant to ward off evil 
spirits. 

Brage, like his father Odin, is the god 
of poetry and eloquence. His health was 



128 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

always drunk at the great feasts, in cups 
fashioned in the form of a ship. This 
toast was called Bragaful, and upon it 
the head of the house and his guests used 
to make oaths to accomplish deeds of 
valor, which, in their more sober mo- 
ments, they found difficult to fulfil, often 
at the sacrifice of their life, hence the 
origin of the English expression " to 
brag/' 

Brage's wife, Idun, called the good 
goddess, keeps the apples from which the 
gods eat to preserve their youth. Thor's 
wife is the beautiful Siv (Sif), with hair 
of gold. Skade, Njord's wife, was, like 
Gerd, of Jotun race, and Snotra was the 
goddess of good sense and womanly 
graces. 

Balder, the good, was all purity and 
brightness. The "Norns" are not only in 
the world, but they are the real rulers of 
it; even the gods must submit to their de- 
crees. They rule over life and death, and 
man's destiny; no one can escape the ca- 



NORSE MYTHOLOGY 129 

lamities which they have preordained. 
But they have not the absolute power at- 
tributed to the fates in Greek and Roman 
mythology. They are also subject to an 
ultimate fate. They disappear at Rag- 
narok. (The etymology of Ragnarok is 
" the darkness of the gods; " but the or- 
dinary meaning is the end of the world.) 

Freya ruled the rain and sunshine; Tyr 
gave victory in sports; Heimdall is the 
sentinel of the gods, ar /es at Bifrost 
(the rainbow), the c^ .stial bridge over 
which gods and men ride to Valhal. 
Vidar, the silent one, is, next to Thor, the 
strongest of the gods. 

Aege is the ocean god, etc., etc., etc. 

In the society of the gods lived Loke, a 
malevolent power, whose mischief -loving 
spirit often caused them sorrow, though 
sometimes they found his subtlety of serv- 
ice. But Loke, like all evil-doers, did not 
escape punishment. He was tied by the 
Aesir in a rocky cavern where poisonous 
adders drop venom into his face, and 



130 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

there he will have to lie till Ragnarok, or 
the end of the world. But his faithful 
wife, Sigyn, stands always by him, and 
gathers the dripping venom in a cup. 
Only when she empties the cup does it 
drop into Loke's face, and then he writhes 
in pain so that the earth quakes. 

From this Norse mythology, also 
called Odinism, we learn many things. 
The Greeks used to say that a man be- 
comes like the god he worships. 

In Odinism the greatest ideal was, 
" Be brave ! " Valor was the virtue, 
above all others, which it called upon its 
votaries to practise. It was courage that 
the gods loved best to see in a man, and 
cowardice that they hated most, and 
punished most severely. Therefore, to 
die bravelv in battle was the most sure 
way to Odin and his feast. Hence the 
believers in this creed learned to regard 
life with contempt, — and peace as a dis- 
graceful state of existence. No wonder 
such doctrine inspired them to be success- 



NORSE MYTHOLOGY 131 

ful warriors, and they became like unto 
Thor, the War-god, whom they wor- 
shipped. 

The End or the World 

The world, in which there is continual 
strife, is in the Norse Mythology repre- 
sented under the symbol of a giant ash- 
tree, the Yggdrasil, whose top reaches 
into the heavens, whose branches fill the 
world, and whose three roots extend into 
the three important spheres of existence 
outside the world of man. One root is 
where the Aesir dwell. Under this root 
is the Well of Urd, where the gods as- 
semble in council. Another root reaches 
to the home of the Jotuns, or Rimthuser, 
under which is the Well of Mimer, the 
fountain of wisdom. The third root is in 
Niflheim, and under it is the terrible well 
Hvergelme, by which is found the snake 
Nidhoggr, which, together with many 
others, continually gnaws at the roots of 
the world tree, and seeks to destroy it. 



132 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

Nidhoggr is the symbol of the destructive 
forces operating in the world. 

Before Ragnarok evil passes all 
bounds. For three years there is perpet- 
ual strife. Brothers fight and kill each 
other, the ties of blood relationship are 
broken, morals are corrupted, and one 
person has no compassion for the other. 
Then follow three years of constant win- 
ter, the Fimbul winter (the great winter). 
Finally Yggdrasil trembles, Fenre, the 
wolf, breaks his fetters, and the Mid- 
gardserpent comes out of the ocean, Surt, 
the fire demon, comes; Loke is free again 
and leads the sons of Muspell and other 
forces of destruction to the final battle 
with the gods on the plain Vigrid. Fenre 
kills Odin, but is in turn slain by the pow- 
erful Vidar. Thor and the Midgarser- 
pent kill each other. Frey is slain by 
Surt; Ty fights against HeFs hound 
Garm, and both fall. Surt finally hurls 
fire over the earth; the sun gi'ows dark, 
the earth sinks into the ocean, fire con- 



NORSE MYTHOLOGY 133 

sumes all— the world of strife and blood- 
shed has disappeared. 

Out of the ocean rises a new green 
earth, where grain-fields grow without 
being sown, and where no evil exists. 

*'A hall I see on the heights of Gimle, brighter 
than the sun, and covered with gold; righteous 
men shall dwell there in endless happiness.'* 



CHAPTER XVI 

SAETER 

One of the most interesting and special 
features of Norwegian national life is the 
saeter. 

A saeter is a mountain dairy, where 
the Norwegian peasants spend their sum- 
mer, pasturing their cattle and making 
butter and cheese. Each farm has its 
right of grazing certain parts of the 
mountains, or sometimes it happens that 
two or more smaller farms share a saeter 
between them. 

When the spring work is finished on 
the farm a peculiar longing for the moun- 
tains comes both to the animals and the 
persons who are accustomed to spending 
their summers up in the mountain dairy. 
Preparations are then made for the mi- 
gration to the saeter. It is a busy and 

134 



SAETER 135 

most interesting time, which has formed 
the subject of many pictures and poems. 

The time for this migration depends on 
the state of the weather and the amount 
of snow which fell in the mountains dur- 
ing the winter. But in many districts it 
takes place about St. Hans' Day (St. 
John's Day, June 24th). 

The procession at last is ready to start. 
The milkmaid or " budeie " usually leads, 
and the cattle, sheep, and goats driven by 
the shepherd boys follow. Then comes 
the farmer with the pack-horses laden 
with all the domestic goods needed by the 
women for two or three months' stay in 
the mountains. There are no wagon- 
roads, and the churns, milk-cans, food, as 
well as vast oval copper pans used for the 
making of cheese, must all be loaded on 
the back of the sure-footed, gentle fjord 
horses. 

Usually this first trip goes only as far 
as the home saeter, which is located close 
enough to the farm to enable the dairy- 



136 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

maid to take the herd home in case of bad 
weather. After they have stayed here a 
few weeks, another long journey is made 
to the high mountain saeter, where the 
warmest and longest part of the summer 
is spent. Then toward the fall they may 
have to move to the home saeter again on 
account of snow and cold weather, which 
prevents them from keeping the cattle in 
the high mountains. 

There are two kinds of saeters. First, 
those that are nicely fitted up to accom- 
modate tourists. Some of these are regu- 
lar first-class mountain hotels. But the 
second-class, the most typical, are those 
that do not expect any tourist traffic. 

It was a joyous day when I could make 
my first trip to the saeter. Starting from 
our home, we went with the cattle 
through narrow roads fenced off from 
cultivated fields, then through a forest of 
pine and spruce until we reached the open 
moors, where the only trees were dwarf 
birches and a kind of willow which grows 



8AETEB 137 

flat upon the ground, and is embedded in 
moss and juniper. 

We started at five o'clock in the morn- 
ing and about noon we reached the saeter, 
after traveling for many miles over tortu- 
ous and dangerous mountain paths. The 
special danger was in crossing the moun- 
tain torrents, which run high and swift in 
the spring. After a fordable place had 
been decided upon a halt was made and 
all the young sheep and goats had to be 
picked up and carried across. We all ar- 
rived safely at the saeter, which has a 
picturesque location in a valley close to a 
mountain lake. The buildings consist of 
a rude log hut with two rooms. Close by 
it runs a mountain brook and at a little 
distance are to be found sheds and pens 
and a barn with a hay-loft. The roofs of 
these buildings consist of rough planks 
on which are placed layers of birch-bark 
to fill in the cracks and on the top again 
are laid sods of earth to a thickness of 
about a foot. Grass and weeds soon 



138 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

cover the roof, binding it together and 
keeping the rain out. 

We enter the saeter hut and find the in- 
side log walls lined with boards. As we 
are seated on a corner bench we notice 
that in another corner are two beds built 
into the wall, one above the other like 
berths, only wider. Standing out about 
two feet from the third corner is the im- 
mense large fireplace. Its floor space is 
a square five by five feet, built of stone 
and it covers about twenty-five square 
feet. The two sides of this square are 
walls reaching to the ceiling and built of 
heavy soapstone. These two sides form 
the back of the fireplace. The other two 
sides make the opening up to five or six 
feet from the floor. There the stone 
walls begin for these two sides and they 
join the two other walls of the fireplace, 
thus making a perfect chimney by the 
time they reach the ceiling. In this 
"peis,'' as such a fireplace is called, the 
log fire is built. From above, hung a 




Evening on the Saeter. 

The evening's peace and contentment is broken only by the lowing 

herd or tinkling cow-bells. It is an idyllic combination 

of a health-resort, camp, and home. 




Fladbrod-Baking in Sakterdalen, 



SAETEU 139 

couple of cranes for the heavier kettles 
and on the sides are smaller pot-hooks. 
The cook is obliged to step up into such 
a large fireplace in order to do the cook- 
ing. 

In this room were two windows each 
with four small panes of glass and two 
doors, one by which we had entered, and 
the other leading into a small room where 
the milk, cheese, and butter are kept. 
There were rows of tubs of all sizes, con- 
taining milk in all stages of sourness and 
sweetness. 

On a larger saeter you will find a de- 
tached hut for the dairy work. Every 
dairymaid (or "budeie") takes great 
pride in keeping everything scrupulously 
clean, the floor, the shelves, the walls, 
wooden vessels, kettles, everything is 
scoured, therefore they are working hard 
all the long daylight hours, and the work 
is arduous. The " budeie " is in charge 
of the saeter. This position is sometimes 
occupied by the farmer's daughter, and if 



140 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

it is a larger saeter, she may have one or 
two hired girls and a shepherd boy or two. 
Each morning the saeter jente (girl) 
must rise early and proceed with the 
milking of a large herd of cows, and in 
many places a flock of goats, and when 
they are taken into the pastures the work 
is by no means over; the milk must be 
strained and put by in the dairy, the vast 
copper pans for preparing the myseost (a 
brown sweet cheese) have to be set over 
the fire, and churning and other work 
makes the time pass quickly until the 
cattle come home for the evening milk- 
ing. 

Saeters are frequently built in groups 
for company's sake, but more often they 
stand alone and always close to a small 
lake or a stream of running water, a good 
supply being needed for all their cooking 
and scrubbing. 

There is no doubt that the life at the 
saeter is a lonely one, for visitors are rare, 
except, perhaps, on Saturday evening. If 



SAETEB 141 

the " budeie " is a popular one, scores of 
young men will chance to meet on the 
saeter green. At such times the girls 
from the neighboring saeters would be 
sent for, and the night would be sure to 
end with a whirling spring dance. In the 
crowd will be found one or more who can 
play the violin. At such occasions the 
fair maidens dance gracefully as the leap- 
ing shadows, but the boys when going 
home must beware lest they are charmed 
by the mountain Hulder. (The Hulder 
is a kind of personification of the forest.) 
She is described as a maiden of wonderful 
beauty and only in this respect different 
from her mortal sisters, that she has a 
long cow's tail attached to her beautiful 
frame. This is the grief of her life. She 
is always longing for the society of the 
mortals, and often she ensnares young 
men by her beauty, but again and again 
the tail interferes by betraying her real 
nature. She is the protecting genius of 
the cattle. 



142 WBEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

Probably it is after such gatherings 
and dances that the life at the saeter, 
though health-giving in the highest de- 
gree, seems very monotonous, and the 
girls often long for the society which the 
life at the farm affords. They will get a 
horse and ride far enough to be able to see 
the valley below from the mountainside. 
This phase of saeter life has been immor- 
talized by the plaintive melody which the 
great violinist Ole Bull wrote for Jorgen 
Moe's beautiful poem, " The Saeter- 
Maid's Sunday," of which the first and 
last stanza reads as follows: 

*^The sun is on high, now church-time is nigh, 

and shorter the shadows are growing, 
that I were free, to-day and could be, to 

church with the worshippers going ! 
When over the edge of yonder broad ledge, the 

sun on his journey is climbing. 
The church bells, I know, in valleys below, in 

chorus are calling and chiming." 

Then the poet describes the saeter 
maiden as she is sitting on the mountain- 



SAETER 143 

side and looking down into the valley on a 
Sunday morning. She hears the far-off 
echo of the church bells and she wishes that 
she were free to go to church with her 
young friends and especially with her 
sweetheart, Odd. 

She says in the last stanza: 

**"What boots it to bring my hymn-book and sing, 
A psalm for my lonely devotion? 
The loft is too high, the notes seem to die, 
And vanish like drops in the ocean. 
^Twould make me rejoice to mingle my voice 
In singing with Odd and the others, 
God grant it were near the end of the year ! 
Grant God I were home with my brothers!" 

But personally I know of no place so 
enjoyable as the saeter. There you can 
see the most beautiful sunset on the lakes 
and snow-capped mountains. Then the 
dairymaid takes her " loor," a straight 
birch-bark horn, about six feet long and 
widening toward one end. On this in- 
strument she will call the cattle home as 
follows: 



144 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

^'Come, children all, 
That hear my call, 
Brynlilda fair 
With nut-brown hair ! 
Come, Little Eose, 
Ere day shall close ; 
And Birchen Bough, 
My own dear cow ; 
And Morning Pride, 
And Sunny Side ; — 
Come, children dear. 
For night draws near, 
Come, children." 

You hear their lowing answer as they 
come running, and a mixed sound of cow- 
bells, goat-bells, sheep-bells, and baying 
of dogs mingled with the hallooing and 
singing of the mountain girls. Life on 
the saeter with the invigorating air, pic- 
turesque scenery, peaceful work, and 
solemn stillness of the evening, after the 
work is done, is the happiest a Norwegian 
peasant knows. 

Even King Oscar II, of Norway and 
Sweden, wrote the following appreciative 
and beautiful description of a visit which 
he made to a saeter in Sogn: 



SAETER 145 

*'How strange the saeter life and dwell- 
ings appear. How poor at first sight and 
yet how hearty and unexpectedly lavish is 
the hospitality which the simple children of 
the mountains extend to the weary travelers. 
Milk warm from the cows, fresh-churned 
butter, reindeer meat, and a couple of de- 
licious trout which we have just seen caught 
in the lake below form a regal feast indeed, 
and spiced with the keen appetite which the 
air here creates, the meal can be equaled 
only by the luxury of reposing on a soft 
couch of fresh fragrant hay.'' 

On our M^ay home from the saeter, one 
of our company must take time to gather 
some of the beautiful flowers. The tiny 
rivulets vi^hich trickle down from the hills 
are lined with ferns and forget-me-nots, 
and in other places are to be found flow- 
ers of every hue, as the red Alpine catch- 
fly, blue meadow cranesbill, hawksweed, 
wild radis, and about six thousand other 
species makes up the variegated flora of 
Norway. 

Personally I was more interested in the 
berries. Norway produces and has of 



146 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

late years exported immense quantities of 
wild fruits and berries. 

The " blaabaer " or bilberry grows 
everywhere, and the " tyttebaer " or red 
whortleberry, which resembles the Ameri- 
can cranberry, is found in many places, 
also the wild raspberries of delicious 
flavor abound in sheltered spots. But 
what we longed for most is the deli- 
cious "multebaer" (cloud-berry), which 
grows in swampy places on the moun- 
tains, particularly in the far north. 

This is a juicy, yellow berry, larger 
in size than even the garden blackberry, 
and with a flavor which is much esteemed 
by most people, although it is so unusual 
that perhaps the taste for it must be ac- 
quired. I 

We found all we could take care of and 
enjoyed the berries and the trip im- 
mensely. 



CHAPTER XVII 

FJELDS AND FJORDS OF NORWAY 

It is a modest assertion to say that no 
country of equal size with Norway can 
boast of such vastness and variety of 
sublime scenery. 

This statement I have heard corrobo- 
rated by hundreds of globe-trotters, 
whom I met while engaged in a large 
tourist business in Christiania. 

When we speak about nightless days 
and dayless nights in Norway, you must 
not imagine that this is true concerning 
the whole country and for all seasons. 
No, like in other lands you have sunny 
and cloudy days, calm days, and stormy 
days when the winds howl and the rain 
descends. 

And the change of weather may come 

very suddenly on account of the high 

147 



148 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

mountains and the large forests where the 
moisture-laden clouds cool sufficiently to 
give up their wet substance. But the 
moisture from the same cloud may fall in 
the form of rain in the deep valleys and 
in the form of snow on the high moun- 
tains, because here, among the perpetual 
snow and ice, it is sufficiently cold to 
change the rain into snow. 

In order to see a landscape in its real 
beauty we usually think that it must be 
flooded with either sunshine or (I almost 
said moonshine) moonlight. This is not 
true of the great mountain districts whose 
rugged grandeur becomes more promi- 
nent with clouds and storm. What a 
grand music when you stand in such a 
wild landscape and listen to the mighty 
winds and surging torrents as they beat 
against the giant mountain walls! Or if 
you stand in a large forest of either pine 
or spruce where the wind seems to sway 
the bodies of the huge trees to the rhythm 
of mountain cascades while the trees clap 



FJELD8 AND FJORDS 149 

their hands and their crowns shout for 

joy- 
Then you can imagine that you hear 

the voice of Thor. How it roars and re- 
echoes from mountain to mountain while 
his chariot wheels flash lightning amid 
these stalwart mountain peaks, that for 
centuries have stood as loyal sentinels 
around Mother Norway. Standing amid 
such grand surroundings one feels drawn 
toward a mighty, invisible power, and in 
place of thinking of Thor in the Norse 
Mythology, we feel more like exclaiming 
with the Christian poet: 

*'How wonderful Creation is! 
The work that Thou didst bless! 
And, oh, what must THOU be Hke, 
Eternal Loveliness.'' 

So grand and lovely is the nature in 
Norway that the globe-trotters used to 
say, " If you love the Swiss lakes and the 
Alpine mountains, then you will find the 
Norwegian fjords and the Jotunheim 



150 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

mountains even more enchanting. If you 
long for the historic Rhine or the beauti- 
ful Hudson, just take a sail of one hun- 
dred and thirty-six miles on the Sogne 
Fjord." 

The name fjord is analogous to the 
Scottish firth, both words having the same 
Norse derivation. A long fjord changes 
often in width from a broad bay or gulf 
to a narrow estuary. These Norse fjords 
are inlets of the North Sea, making deep 
incisions into the rocky cliffs, and are not 
only wild and romantic in their aspects, 
but the water is so transparent that it has 
perhaps no parallel except at the Thou- 
sand Islands. 

Nothing can be more surprising and 
beautiful than the singular clearness of 
the sea on the western coast of Norway. 
As we passed slowly over the surface the 
bottom, which here was generally a white 
sand, was clearly visible with its minutest 
objects, although the depth was from 
twenty to twenty-five fathoms. 



FJELDS AND FJORDS 151 

I have traveled a great deal and seen 
many wonderful things, but nothing has 
appeared to me so extraordinary as the 
inmost recesses of the deep, thus unveiled 
to the eye. Here the ocean is perfectly 
calm, as the western coast of Norway is 
surrounded by a perfect chain of one 
hundred and fifty thousand islands, and 
these form a natural and a most excellent 
breakwater. 

Hanging over the gunwale of the boat, 
I gazed with wonder and delight upon the 
slowly-moving scene below. It was the 
shelter for many creatures unknown to 
man, and I could sometimes observe large 
fishes of singular shape gliding softly and 
leisurely through the watery thickets. 
They seemed perfectly unconscious that 
we were moving above them. 

But this transparent calm water makes 
also a perfect mirror for everything that 
surrounds the fjord. The reflection of 
the mountains upon the surface of the 
water is often as well-defined as the rocks 



152 WHEN 1 WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

themselves, so that when viewed at a short 
distance it is no easy matter to decide 
where the line is that separates the water 
from the shore. 

This uncertainty when crossing one of 
the fjords in a boat has a most singular 
effect. Everything appears upside down; 
houses upset, trees growing in the wrong 
direction, men walking on their heads, 
cattle on their backs and the whole ap- 
pearance having such an air of reality as 
to beguile the senses of one who is not ac- 
customed to it. 

Inspired by such beautiful scenes as 
you can see in one of the Norwegian 
fjords the poet wrote: 

*^ Believe me, lady, when the Zephyrs bland 
Floated our bark to this enchanted land, 
These mighty rocks into the ocean thrown 
Like giant thrones in a silver zone, — 
Never did weary bark more sweetly glide, 
Or rest its anchor in a lovelier tide/* 



r*^'"' 




Old Posting Station, with Cariole. 
Aasoren, Gudbrandsdalen. 

The architecture is from the sixteenth century. 




Antique Costumes, Vaage, Gudbrandsdalen. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

HOLY DAYS 

Unique Christinas Customs in Norway 

The celebration of Yule was practised 
in the northern countries long before they 
accepted the Christian religion. 

This heathen celebration was a feast in 
honor of the sun, when, in January, it 
seemed to renew its strength and over- 
come the power of darkness (by rising 
high enough on the firmament to spread 
its golden rays over the country). 

During the two weeks of this festival 

only the most necessary work was to be 

done. Implements with wheels, as 

wagons and the spinning-wheels, must 

rest. To let a wheel move was a sacrilege 

against the holy sun, as it might indicate 

that they wanted the sun-wheel to move 

faster. 

163 



154 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

Fish, bird, and beast must have perfect 
peace during the two-weeks' celebration 
of Yule. Therefore, every trap and 
snare must be taken away, and even the 
fish-nets must be removed from the ocean 
and rivers. 

The great Christmas peace, — ^resting 
over the whole creation — ^must be ob- 
served, or woe be unto the transgressor. 
Selma Lagerlof tells a beautiful story 
about a bear that was kind enough to give 
Christmas lodging in its winter den to a 
farmer, who was lost in the storm. 

But when the farmer returned the next 
day with his gun in order to kill the bear, 
the bear killed the man, and even his 
wife thought this was a righteous punish- 
ment, because her husband had attempted 
to kill the bear before the Christmas festi- 
val was over. 

From these twelve holy Christmas days 
the people took forebodings for the com- 
ing year. Every day they wrote on one 
of the big logs under the rafters a sign in- 



HOLY DAYS 155 

dicating the kind of weather for that day. 
If it were stormy the first day, the whole 
first month of the next year would be 
stormy, etc. From this they have the 
proverb, " If the Christmas signs do not 
fail." 

At the end of the twelve holy days 
came the climax of the great festival. 
The days were getting longer and a huge 
wheel would be rolled from farm to farm. 

When the Christian religion was intro- 
duced, Christmas was celebrated a couple 
of weeks earlier than Yule, and thence- 
forth heathen and Christian customs 
were mixed. 

All Christmas preparations must be 
finished before St. Thomas' Day, De- 
cember 21st. By that time sufficient 
wood had to be cut to last over the two- 
weeks' celebration. If this were neg- 
lected, St. Thomas would come and take 
away the ax. Likewise, must all baking, 
brewing, and butchering be ready by that 
day, otherwise they will have some mishap 



156 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

with everything. A cake was put on a 
shelf for St. Thomas before five o'clock 
Christmas Eve. 

How we as children used to count the 
weeks, days, and finally the hours before 
Christmas! But when everything was in 
order in the house, barn, stable, and store- 
house, and we could put up the Christmas 
sheaves for the birds, then we knew the 
great feast was drawing nigh. 

It was now a question for every one to 
get a bath, put on clean underwear and 
the best clothes, including any new gar- 
ment made for Christmas. Whereupon 
the whole family would gather in peace 
and contentment and partake of the 
Christmas Eve dinner which usually con- 
sisted of short ribs, different kinds of 
bread and cake, and rice pudding. Into 
the rice pudding had been put one al- 
mond. The one who found this almond 
on his plate wovild be the first one to get 
married. Every one had to leave some 
pudding on his plate for the dead, who 



HOLY DAYS 157 

were certain to call during the night and 
get their share of the Christmas food. 
This was left on the table in great quan- 
tity and variety; but the dead do not eat 
like us mortals. They only want " the 
spirit of the food," hence when morning 
came everything looked as though it were 
untouched. It was, however, not only the 
good spirits that would visit the house 
Christmas night. The ghostly pranks of 
the evil spirits consisted in going from 
farm to farm and taking revenge on their 
enemies. This wild host brought fear and 
trembling wherever they went, for the 
transgressor was put through the most 
cruel punishment. 

Even the Christmas ram or goats must 
be fed. In some places they would put 
some barley in a shoe and place it under 
the bed. Most of the time they could see 
that he had been eating a little during the 
night. But if the ram did not touch it, he 
was offended at something and would 
bring bad luck during the year. At a cer- 



158 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

tain farm a cow died during the spring 
and the lady of the house was positive 
that it was her husband's fault because 
he had neglected to feed the Christmas 
ram. 

In the parish, Elverum, they knew just 
where the Christmas ram lived. He 
moved from place to place during the 
winter until Christmas Eve, when he 
finally managed to get under the dining- 
room table. The last thing before they 
went to bed they would sweep very care- 
fully under the table, and the first thing 
in the morning on Christmas day, they 
would see if the ram had left any grain 
there. If they found some it would be a 
good year, providing the grain was good. 
If this was poor, it would be a poor crop 
that year; but if they did not find any, it 
would be crop failure. 

But it is not only the supernatural be- 
ings that must be provided with extra 
food at Christmas. In some places they 
would give the domestic animals an extra 



HOLY DAYS 159 

meal about five o'clock Christmas Eve. 
In feeding them they would say, " Eat 
well, keep well; this is Christmas Eve/' 

Then they would feed the cattle salt 
out of a cow-bell. This would help them 
next summer to come home from the 
pasture in the evening of their own ac- 
cord. 

Different prognostications were taken 
from grain and salt that had been placed 
on the hot hearth Christmas Eve. 

What has been stated in this article so 
far are mostly antiquated customs no 
longer to be found; but there is one nice 
custom in use, not only all over Norway, 
but the Norwegians who have emigrated 
to foreign countries usually practise it in 
their new homes. At Christmas I have 
seen in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, 
and North Dakota sheaves of grain put 
upon poles out in the yard, or on top of 
the barn. Then I knew that Norwegians 
were living there. 

These sheaves are the largest and best 



160 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

that could be selected at threshing time. 
They should be put up on a spruce pole 
on which a large tuft of branches must be 
left at the top. This makes a nice place 
where the birds can rest after their meals. 
The snow should also be removed from a 
large circle on the lawn, and on this bare 
spot the birds will dance between meals, 
and thus get up their appetites for the 
next repast. 

When everj^thing was finished Christ- 
mas Eve, the dishes washed and the house 
set in order for Christmas day, and all the 
old brooms had been carefully hidden in 
order to prevent the witches from riding 
them Christmas night ; when for a similar 
purpose the fire-shovel and tongs had 
been put away; then the head of the 
household would go out to see if there 
were many sparrows in the Christmas 
sheaf. If there were many, it would be 
a good corn year; but if a sparrow sat 
down in the sheaf before all the work con- 
nected with putting it up had been 



HOLY DATS 161 

finished, it was an omen that some one in 
the family would soon die. 

On Christmas Eve, when darkness had 
conquered the light, then the fear of evil 
beings crept upon one. In order to drive 
away the witches and other uncanny be- 
ings, they went out in the yard and fired 
a shot. This has been transformed into 
" shooting in Christmas," or a Christmas 
salute. The young men go from farm to 
farm and sneak up close to the window 
while shooting, in order to make the peo- 
ple quake. 

But they could not be offended, as such 
a visit was considered an honor, and the 
husbandman would go and invite them in 
for refreshments. 

As it was commonly believed that the 
witches would be riding around in the air 
on their brooms that evening, the people 
were afraid that they might come down 
the chimney. In order to prevent this 
they would burn dry spruce, which would 
send out so many sparks, that it would 



162 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

keep away the uninvited guests, or if one 
put salt in the fire it would serve the same 
purpose. 

It was not considered safe to go to bed 
that evening without leaving a light burn- 
ing, because all evil beings were usually 
active on this holy night. Sometimes 
they made an extra large candle that 
would last all night, and this they left 
burning on the hearth with a circle of salt 
around it. Both the candle and the salt 
were consecrated. 

But in most places they would burn the 
" Yule Log," as all evil shuns the bright 
light. This custom of burning the " Yule 
Log" was in olden times transferred 
from Norway into England. 

Many other safety devices were re- 
sorted to on Christmas Eve. Steel had to 
be put over the stable and barn doors; 
and with a brush dipped in tar, the sign 
of the cross was made over the different 
doors. 

These customs, mostly used in the rural 



HOLY DAYS 163 

districts, are now passing away; but of 
those that are still in use one might be 
mentioned. 

They leave a light burning in the win- 
dow all Christmas night as a sign that any 
traveler is welcome for food and shelter. 

The table is set all the time during the 
two weeks of Christmas festivities, and 
visitors as well as members of the family 
can help themselves at any time to food 
and drinks. 



CHAPTER XIX 

festivals: seventeenth of may^ and ST. 

JOHN^S EVE 

The Norwegian peasant has many 
festivals. These are necessary for relax- 
ation, as these people's life is very strenu- 
ous. 

The seventeenth of May is Norway's 
National Independence Day. It corre- 
sponds to America's Fourth of July, and 
is celebrated in honor of the drawing up 
of the constitution at Eidsvold, in 1814. 
All over Norway this day is observed 
with great enthusiasm, from Christiania 
to North Cape and from the Swedish 
border to the North Sea, flags are flying, 
salutes are fired, bands are playing, pro- 
cessions are marching and larger or 
smaller congregations gather and listen 

attentively to inspiring patriotic orations. 

164 



FESTIVALS 165 

Often have I been called upon by my 
countrymen in America to speak at such 
festivals; but my most vivid recollections 
are from the celebrations in my home 
parish and from those held in Christiania 
in which our athletic society participated. 
Here I heard a seventeenth of May ora- 
tion delivered by the man who in his days 
ranked as the world's greatest orator — 
Bjornstjerne Bjornson. 

St. John's Festivals or Midsummer 
Fires — Jime 24th. 

In Norway, probably more than in any 
other European country, many primitive 
customs and relics of bygone supersti- 
tions have been preserved. I regret to 
say, however, that they are rapidly dying 
out. One of these customs worth keeping 
up is the celebration of the Midsummer, 
or St. John's Day fires. In Germany 
this day is known as " Johannisfeuer " 
and in France " Feu de S. Jean "; but in 
Sweden, Denmark and Norway we call 
it "Sankt Hans." St. John the Bap- 



166 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

tist is the patron of St. John's Day. 
As we find this festival both in Persia and 
among the Celtic and Teutonic people, it 
no doubt springs from religious rites 
prior to Christianity. At that time it was 
most likely a festival to the sun, held on 
the sun's highest day. Many of the peo- 
ple in those days were sun-worshippers 
and the fire used in the festival to-day is a 
sort of image or symbol of the sim. 

As a child I used to long for the Mid- 
summer Fires. In many rural places the 
ceremonies begin with a mock wedding. 
A girl, about twelve years of age, is 
dressed as a bride with the Norwegian 
bridal crown and followed by a procession 
of other girls. The whole procession is 
led by a fiddler, who plays a march as he 
would in the case of a real Norse wed- 
ding. The little bride corresponds to the 
May Queen in an American May-Day 
festival. 

One of the last summers befoi'e my 
emigration from Norway, I lived on an 



FESTIVALS 167 

island in the Chris tiania fjord. At this 
place a group of us prepared a St. 
John's festival. We built an immense 
fire of logs and many old tar-barrels. 
The light was reflected far over the water, 
and could be seen both from the city and 
from hundreds of summer resorts on the 
surrounding islands. Beautiful was the 
sight of the many and different kinds of 
boats, which, from all directions, swiftly 
skimmed over the water to join our cele- 
bration. From the boats floated the 
strains of different musical instruments 
and the air being perfectly calm, the 
music on the water sounded charmingly. 
All the boats carried young men and 
maidens, and many of the latter were 
dressed in national costume. Below our 
great bonfire was a large level meadow. 
In the centre of this we built a smaller 
fire, and the dancing around it was con- 
tinued all night. 

The nights in Norway, at this season of 
the year, are so light that one may read 



168 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

until two o'clock in the morning without 
the use of artificial light. 

On the many islands surrounding us 
were built hundreds of fires on the highest 
promontories and from afar one could 
observe shadow-like figures dancing as 
fairies around the fires. The spectator at 
such a festival enjoys the frolics, sports, 
and pastimes, and the various beautiful 
folk dances, as well as the spectacular 
sport by the boys and young men of leap- 
ing through the flame. This practice is 
believed by some writers to be a far-off 
reflex of the sacrifice of children by pass- 
ing them through the fire. Of the same 
origin is the ordeal by fire: "As Abraham's 
readiness to sacrifice Isaac was accounted 
to him for righteousness; so is the readi- 
ness of an accused person to offer himself 
as a sacrifice to the deity supposed to show 
his innocence; and, as in the case of Isaac, 
the divinity is expected to intervene in 
order to prevent the completion of the 
sacrifice." 




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CHAPTER XX 

RENOWNED MUSICIANS, AND FOLK-MUSIC 

IN NORWAY 

You do not feel like singing when the 
day is cold, and dark, and dreary; but 
when the sun shines and everything is 
light and cheery, it is natural to hum and 
sing. Therefore, in sunny Italy and 
other southern countries, the people are 
humming and singing more than they do 
in Norway. The Norsemen have a 
shadow of sadness and melancholy cast 
over them by the powerful effects of the 
climate and by the stern and rugged na- 
ture. Songs are, as you know, outward 
expressions of people's inward emotions. 
If you were in the church to attend a fu- 
neral your emotions would not be the 
same as if you were there at a wedding. 

Consequently you would not feel like 

169 



170 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

singing the same kind of songs at these 
different occasions. 

The songs of the South are light and 
lively like the people; but the songs of the 
Norwegians are heavy, expressing deej) 
and sombre reflections in minor chords 
that suggest sadness. For "the mighty 
ocean that beats upon the shore, the dark 
fjords with their overhanging forbidding 
cliffs, the noisy waterfalls, the miles of 
blue-green pine and fir, the endless wastes 
of mountains and ice with the crackling 
flames of the northern lights, the long 
night of winter — all the Titanic forces 
with which Nature has endowed the coun- 
try," make the people reserved and self- 
contained. Their emotions do not find 
expression in song to the same extent as 
do the lighter and more demonstrative 
natures of the southern nations. 

But the people nevertheless possess 
greater musical feeling and lyric power 
than perhaps the majority of the other 
nations in Europe. Their national music 



RENOWNED MUSICIANS 171 

is admirable for its original force and 
ever-varying moods, which reflect, as in a 
kaleidoscope, their warm, deep feeling. 

In the remote and isolated valleys and 
rural districts of Norway, there has 
grown a pure folk-music as characteristic 
of the land as her mountains. The great 
value of this folk-music comes from the 
fact that it exhibits the real atmosphere of 
the land of their origin. Unfortunately, 
some of these musical gems were lost 
before the attempt was made to make a 
record of them. This work was first 
started by the great organist and com- 
poser, L. M. Lindeman (1812-1887). 

Beginning in 1848, he collected many 
hundreds of songs, ballads, dances, and 
hymns, and thereby erected to his own 
memory an undying monument. The 
collecting of Norwegian national music 
has of late years been continued by Mr. 
C. Elling. 

The characteristics of this folk-music is 
stated by Mr. V. H. Siewers as follows: 



172 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

" There is in this music an infinity of 
varying moods, rhythms and colors. 
Every one of the harp strings is tuned. 
They sing of heroic exploits in heathen 
ages, of the kings and warriors of the Mid- 
dle Ages, and of the beautiful ' huldre ' 
(hill fairies), of the 'draug' (water 
spirit), who presages the destruction of 
the fishermen, of the brownie and the 
water-sprite. There are also love-songs 
so deep and ardent that they have few 
equals, sarcastic comic songs, and chil- 
dren's songs as pure and innocent as the 
sleeping child itself." 

" Stev" is an impressive kind of popu- 
lar poetry characteristic of Norse music. 
It is a little four-lined stanza of most va- 
ried substance. It may be used to ex- 
press coarse ridicule and grotesque humor, 
or warm, intense feeling. The stave is 
frequently used in the mountain districts 
for social entertainment, in the form of 
alternate singing — a duel in song. 

In '' Gunnar " Mr. Boyesen gives an 
excellent sample of the interesting stev. 

As an introduction he writes a charm- 



RENOWNED MUSICIANS 173 

ing description of how young and old, 
lads and lassies, thronged eagerly about 
the couple in the dance-hall in order to 
hear the stev. 

Ragnhild, " as she stood there, in the 
warm flush of the torch-light, with her 
rich, blond hair waving down over her 
shoulders, and with that veiled brightness 
in her eyes, her beauty sprang upon you 
like a sudden wonder, and her presence 
was inspiration. And Gunnar saw her;' 
she loved him; what cared he for all the 
world beside? Proudly he raised his head 
and sang: 

Gunnar. There standeth a birch in the light- 
some lea, 

Ragnhild. In the lightsome lea ; 

Gunnar. So fair she stands in the sunlight 
free, 

Eagnhild. In the sunlight free; 

Both. So fair she stands in the sunlight free. 

R. High up on the mountain there standeth a 

pine, 
G. There standeth a pine ; 
R. So staunchly grown and so tall and fine, 



174 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

G. So tall and fine ; 

Both. So staunchly grown and so tall and fine. 

G. A maiden I know as fair as the day, 

R. As fair as the day; 

G. She shines like the birch in the sunlight's 

play, 

R. In the sunlight 's play ; 

Both. She shines like the birch in the sun- 
light's play. 

R. I know a lad in the spring's glad light, 
G. In the spring's glad light; 
R. Far-seen as the pine on the mountain height, 
G. On the mountain height ; 
Both. Far-seen as the pine on the mountain 
height. 

G. So bright and blue are the starry skies, 
R. The starry skies ; 

G. But brighter and bluer that maiden's eyes, 
R. That maiden's eyes; 

Both. But brighter and bluer that maiden's 
eyes. 

R. And his have a depth like the fjord, I know, 

G. The fjord, I know; 

R. Wherein the heavens their beauty show, 

G. Their beauty show; 

Both. Wherein the heavens their beauty show. 



RENOWNED MUSICIANS 175 

G. The birds each morn seek the forest-glade, 

R. The forest-glade ; 

6. So flock my thoughts to that lily maid, 

R. That lily maid; 

Both. So flock my thoughts to that lily maid. 

R. The moss it clingeth so fast to the stone, 

G. So fast to the stone ; 

R. So clingeth my soul to him alone, 

G, To him alone; 

Both. So clingeth my soul to him alone. 

G. Each brook sings its song, but forever the 

same, 
R. Forever the same ; 

G. Forever my heart beats that maiden's name, 
R. That maiden's name; 
Both. Forever my heart beats that maiden ^s 

name. 

R. The plover hath but an only tone, 

G. An only tone; 

R. My life hath its love, and its love alone, 

G. Its love alone ; 

Both. My life hath its love, and its love alone. 

G. The rivers all to the fjord they go, 

R. To the fjord they go ; 

G. So may our lives then together flow, 

R. Together flow; 

Both. 0, may our lives then together flow! 



176 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

The National Instruments of Nor- 
way are the Hardanger violin, the Lui% 
and the Langeleik. These have played a 
leading role in the development of the 
national music, as they have been the 
principal instruments in the musical life 
of the people in the rural districts. 

The langeleik is an old form of zither. 
It has a long, flat body with sound-holes 
and seven or more strings, which are struck 
with a plectrum. But the tone is weak, 
the modulations few, and the eif ect some- 
what monotonous. 

The Hardanger violin is higher and 
more arched in its build than the ordinary 
violin. The scroll is generally a dragon's 
head, and the body is richly ornamented 
with ivory, mother-of-pearl, and carvings. 

Beneath the four upper strings (which 
are variously tuned according to the mu- 
sic they wish to produce) , — and under the 
finger-board, there are four, sometimes 
more, sympathetic strings of fine steel 
wire. 



RENOWNED MUSICIANS 111 

By the aid of this instrument, the coun- 
try people make their improvised musical 
impressions of nature, interspersed with 
descriptive sketches of midsummer with 
the dawn of morning and the glow of 
evening, huldre's song, thrush's trill, or 
the ringing of marriage-bells. 

National Dances are often danced 
with vocal instead of instrumental music. 
The dancers are attentive and responsive 
to the words as they are sung. , 

Usually, however, the dances are too 
lively for vocal music, and the fiddle is 
brought into play. 

The most popular of the folk-dances in 
the rural districts of Norway are the 
springdans, polka, and the hailing. 

These Norwegian national dances have 
a natural and bold character, which gives 
them considerable musical worth. The 
springdans, so called to distinguish it 
from the ganger (or walking dance) is in 
three-four measure, and it has vigorous 



178 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

evolutions and gyrations. It is charac- 
terized by a striking combination of 
binary and ternary rhythms, and a pro- 
gressive animation very exciting to the 
hearers. 

"The King of the Violin/^ Ole 
Bull, is a personage with whom I have 
been familiar since my childhood. Many 
were the stories my father told me about 
this talented boy, who was so interested in 
music that when a mere child he would 
steal out of bed and play his violin softly 
in the night-time. 

But his father discovered him, and in 
his anger he broke the boy's violin. He 
soon secured another instrument, and in 
this he was far more interested than in his 
school work. 

The old rector of the Latin School un- 
derstood the boy's love for music, and one 
day he said to Ole, " Take your fiddle in 
earnest, boy, and don't waste your time 
here." He followed this advice and be- 



RENOWNED MUSICIANS 179 

came a violinist, concerning whom no less 
an authority than Joachim said, '' No 
other artist in our time has possessed his 
poetic fire." 

The Violin King, Ole Bull, was born in 
Bergen, Norway, 1810. His life and 
labors are so world-renowned that I shall 
take space for only some of the most in- 
teresting incidents in his remarkable ca- 
reer. 

Ole Bull is described as a tall, well-built 
and unusually strong man, with a sharp, 
keen look, black brows over bright, glad 
eyes full of life and a firm mouth and 
dimpled chin; a man who could do much 
and suffer much. 

Ole Bull is the idol of so great a master 
as Grieg. Mr. Finck tells us, in his most 
interesting life of Grieg, how as a boy 
"something like an electric current 
seemed to pass through the lad when the 
world-famed violinist shook his hand, 
though the boy thought it peculiar that 
Ole Bull (whom he regarded as a god) 



180 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY. 

could smile and joke just like ordinary 
mortals." 

On two or three occasions Ole Bull 
nearly lost his life through the great love 
for his violin. The first time v^as in Paris, 
where he tried to drown himself in the 
Seine when he found that his excellent 
violin had been stolen; but he was rescued, 
and a wealthy lady gave him another 
Guarneri. 

Through a peculiar fit of pique on the 
part of Madame Malibran, Ole Bull had 
the opportunity to score his first great 
success. 

Sara Bull, his sister, tells us that Ma- 
dame Malibran had been engaged for a 
series of nights by the directors of the 
leading theatre in Bologna. But she had 
made a condition which compelled them 
to give the use of the theatre without 
charge to the great violinist De Beriot, 
with whom she was to appear in two con- 
certs. 

The Marquis Lampieri, who was rec- 



RENOWNED MUSICIANS 181 

ognized as one of the greatest authori- 
ties in the musical world, persuaded these 
artists to appear at the same time. All 
was arranged and announced when, by 
chance, Malibran heard that De Beriot 
was to receive a smaller sum than had 
been stipulated for herself. Piqued at 
this, she feigned illness, and De Beriot 
declared that he was suffering from a 
sprained thumb. 

Ole Bull had been a fortnight in Bo- 
logna, living in an upper room, in a poor 
hotel. Secluded from society, he spent 
the days in writing out his concerto ; when 
evening came, the wonderful tones of his 
violin sounded from the open windows to 
the delight of the passers-by. 

One evening the celebrated Colbran 
Rossini's first wife was passing Casa Sol- 
dali and heard those strains. '' It must 
be a violin," she said, " but a divine one, 
which will be a substitute for De Beriot 
and Malibran." And she went and told 
Lampieri on the night of the concert. 



182 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

Ole Bull, full of weariness, had retired 
to bed early, when he was roused by a rap 
at the door. It was Lampieri ! He asked 
Ole Bull to improvise for him, and after 
listening for a while, cried, " Malibran 
may now have her headaches! '' 

He hurried Ole Bull to the theatre, 
where, in one of the boxes, sat the Grand 
Duke of Tuscany, and De Beriot with his 
hand in a sling. Ole Bull was almost un- 
nerved, but he chose his own composition, 
and the desperation which compelled him 
to shut his eyes, made him play with an 
abandon and charm which at once capti- 
vated his audience. 

The final piece was to be a violin solo. 
The director was doubtful, but Ole Bull 
was by this time quite composed, and 
played so divinely that his hearers 
wept. 

Perhaps the most memorable of his con- 
cert tours was that which he undertook in 
1853 with the girl soprano, Adelina Patti. 
Reports of the wonderful art of this child 



RENOWNED MUSICIANS 183 

had gone forth, and as one of the Ameri- 
can critics remarked, '' Nothing short of 
the testimony we have seen could make us 
believe such a thing possible. Yet the 
whole artistic life of Ole Bull is a guaran- 
tee that nothing but sterling merit can 
take part in his concerts." 

This series of concerts were given by 
Ole Bull for the purpose of raising funds 
for a patriotic project, namely, the estab- 
lishment of a large Norwegian colony in 
Pennsylvania. Mr. Bull said that this 
should be "A new Norway, consecrated to 
liberty, baptized with independence, and 
protected by the Union's mighty flag." 
But after the forests had been cleared, 
and eight hundred settlers made their 
homes there, he found that he had been 
swindled. The title to the land he had 
paid for was fraudulent, and all that re- 
mained of his earnings was devoured by 
the resulting lawsuits. And when he re- 
turned to Norway, his countrymen un- 
justly accused him of having speculated 



184 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

ruthlessly at the expense of those who had 
confided in him. 

But with his violili Ole Bull made an- 
other fortune, and founded at his own ex- 
pense a new national theatre in Bergen. 
He also tried to found a Norse Music 
Academy in Christiania. " This acad- 
emy," writes Jonas Lie, " was not 
founded; but the seed — the thought — ^was 
at that time planted. Since then it has 
grown and matured, and to-day we have 
a body of artists and composers, and quite 
another musical culture ready to receive 
it." 

Ole Bull's patriotic aspirations and 
services were duly acknowledged by all 
his countrymen at the time of his death in 
1880. The King sent a telegram of con- 
dolence to the widow, expressing his per- 
sonal, as well as the national, loss, and 
Bjornstjerne Bjornson said in an address 
delivered before thousands of mourners, 
'' Patriotism was the creative power in his 
life. When he established the Norse the- 



RENOWNED MUSICIANS 185 

atre, assisted Norse art, and helped the 
National Museum, his mighty instrument 
singing for other patriotic ends; when he 
helped his countrymen and others wher- 
ever he found them, it was not so much 
for the object, or the perjson, but for the 
honor of Norway." 

Grieg played the organ at the funeral 
services, and his remarks, which followed 
Bjornson's, are very beautiful: "Because 
more than any other thou wast the glory 
of our land ; because more than any other 
thou hast carried our people with thee up 
toward the bright heights of Art; be- 
cause thou wast more than any other a 
pioneer of our young national music; 
more, much more, than any other, the 
faithful, warm-hearted conqueror of all 
hearts, because thou hast planted a seed 
which shall spring up in the future, and 
for which coming generations shall bless 
thee, with the gratitude of thousands 
upon thousands. For all this, in the 
name of our Norse memorial art, I lay 



186 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

this laurel wreatK on thy coffin. Peace 
be with thy ashes/' 

On a glass-covered table, in Bergen 
Museum, lies a beautiful gold laurel 
wreath with berries of the purest pearls. 
Alongside rests the violin the great mas- 
ter so loved. The strings are broken. 
The hand, that with such magic touch 
won from the instrument all that it could 
give, is now turned into dust; but the 
music lives and will live for aye. 

Another World-famous Norwegian 
Musician is Edward Grieg. 

In 1843 he was born in Bergen, the 
birthplace of his musical idol and friend, 
Ole Bull. 

Grieg's great talent was inherited from 
his mother, Gesine Judith Hagerup. 
Her skill was so great that she was able 
to appear as soloist at concerts in Bergen. 
His mother began to teach him music 
when he was only six years old, and she 



RENOWNED MUSICIANS ^ 187 

succeeded beyond her fondest hopes. 
Grieg says: 

" It was not easy sailing at first. I 
had to practise just what was unpleasant. 
. . . There was no trifling with her if 
I spent the time in dreaming at the piano 
instead of busying myself with the lesson 
set. . . . Had I not inherited my 
mother's irrepressible energy, as well as 
her musical capacity, I should never in 
any respect have succeeded in passing 
from dreams to deeds." 

It was Ole Bull who discovered the 
great musical talent in the young lad. 
Concerning this, Grieg tells as follows: 

" When he heard I had composed mu- 
sic I had to go to the piano; all my en- 
treaties were in vain. I cannot now un- 
derstand what Ole Bull could find at that 
time in my juvenile pieces. But he was 
quite serious, and talked quietly to my 
parents. The matter of their discussion 
was by no means disagreeable to me. For 
suddenly Ole Bull came to me, shook me 
in his own way, and said, * You are to go 
to Leipzig, and become a musician!" 



188 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

Everybody looked at me affectionately, 
and I understood just one thing — that a 
good fairy was stroking my cheeks, and 
that I was happy/' 

At the Conservatory in Leipzig, Grieg 
had such famous teachers as Plaidy, 
Wenzel, and Moscheles. Grieg suddenly 
realized that several of his fellow students 
progressed more quickly than he did. 
He did not work as hard as thev did; 
but from now on he resolved to submit to 
the drudgery as they did, and he went 
from one extreme to the other. 

He worked day and night, with the re- 
sult that he collapsed in the spring of 
1860 with lung trouble, which weakened 
his health for life. By mere will-power 
he passed a creditable examination that 
same vear. 

AVlien Grieg was twenty-one he was 
encouraged bv the famous Niels W. Gade 
to write a svmphonv. In the same vear 
he enjoyed the privilege of making excur- 
sions with Ole Bull where Bull, as a child. 



RENOWNED MUSICIANS 189 

had fancied that he heard nature sing and 
the bluebells ring. Ole Bull's motto 
was, " My calling is Norse music." This 
same love of Norse music he now incul- 
cated in his talented j^oung companion, as 
they played together and visited the 
homes of the peasants and heard their 
music. 

In the chain of Norwegian national 
music there are three links. The first one 
is Half dan Kjerulf, the second, Rikard 
Nordraak, — and these two had a decided 
influence upon the third link, Edward 
Grieg. 

At the age of twenty-five Grieg com- 
posed his Sonata (Opus 8) . After read- 
ing it Franz Liszt wrote to him from 
Rome, and invited him cordially to spend 
some time at Weimar. The Government 
granted Grieg a sum of money which en- 
abled him to visit Rome and meet Liszt. 
After Liszt had given him a grand exhi- 
bition of his own tremendous musical 
power, he turned to Grieg and said jaunt- 



190 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

ily, '' Now let us go on with the sonata/' 
Grieg continues: 

" You must bear in mind, in the first 
place, that he had never played it nor 
heard it played; and in the second place, 
that it was a sonata with a violin part, 
now above, now below, independent of 
the pianoforte part. And what does 
Liszt do? He plays the whole thing root 
and branch, violin and piano, — nay, more, 
for he played fuller, more broadly. The 
violin got its due right in the middle of 
the piano part. He was literally over the 
whole piano at once, without missing a 
note, and how he did play ! '' 

Grieg left the house strangely hot in 
his head, but with the consciousness of 
having spent two of the most interesting 
hours in his life. 

Grieg has brought it about that Norse 
music, depicting Norwegian moods and 
life, has entered into every music-room of 
the whole world. Probably he is best 
known to the outside world by his grand 
and inspired music to Ibsen's Peer Gynt. 



RENOWNED MUSICIANS 191 

Was it not Robert Schumann who 
said, " Grieg is recognized far beyond his 
native country as one of the few masters 
who have enriched music with new means 
of melody and harmonic expression, and 
created a national art distinguished by 
poetic feeling and the charm of many 
moods ''? 



CHAPTER XXI 

WINTER SPORTS 

Skiing and Skating on the '' Playground 

of the North '' 

People not familiar with the climate of 
Norway generally believe that it is ex- 
tremely severe — as that of Siberia for in- 
stance. This is not so, however, for along 
her coast flows a branch of the Gulf 
Stream, giving Norway a climate which 
makes the winter sports very pleasant. 

Skiing 

is the national sport of Norway and is 

enjoyed by old and young of both sexes. 

Skis (skees) are a peculiar kind of 

snowshoes — from six to nine feet long 

and about four inches wide. They are 

made of tough wood, such as ash or hick- 

192 



WINTER SPORTS 193 

ory, and are polished smooth on the un- 
derside to make them glide easily over the 
snow. The front end is pointed and 
curved upward, and from end to end the 
ski is slightly arched and will give a 
spring when you put your weight on it. 
In the centre are " bindings " by which 
you secure them to your feet. 

The Norwegian boy (and girl, too,) 
learns to use skis almost as soon as he is 
able to walk. As the snow comes long be- 
fore Christmas and stays till March or 
April, ample opportunity is offered to en- 
joy this health-giving and most fascinat- 
ing of all sports. 

In Lom, Norway, the parish where I 
was born, skiing made an easy mode of 
travel, hence we learned it as children. 

It was great fun sliding down hills, 
small ones at first, then longer and steeper 
ones until we had mastered them all. 
And then came the thrill of ski-jumping! 
Selecting a long and moderately steep 
hill we would build of snow in the middle 



194 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

of the hill a " take-off " or platform and 
begin practising. Starting near the top 
and fast losing confidence as we ap- 
proached the take-off the leap was made 
in a half-hearted manner, and thud! you 
would land on your back with your skis 
pointed skyward, and enveloped in a 
cloud of snow while your playmates 
would scream with glee. But after a few 
tumbles one would gain confidence and 
control, and the leaps became bolder and 
surer. Many of my playmates while still 
in " knickers " could do sixty to eighty 
feet and retain their balance till the foot 
of the hill was reached. 

Unlike many other sports, the skier is 
not confined to any limited field of action. 
He is free to go wherever snow covers the 
ground — over fields and frozen lakes, 
through forests or up the mountainside 
till the highest peaks are reached. With 
his knapsack well filled with provisions 
he may make long excursions into strange 
valleys or unexplored mountain regions. 



WINTER SPORTS 195 

and the sights that meet his gaze are 
never to be forgotten. 

Christiania, the capital of Norway, has 
an ideal situation for winter sports. 
There one may count on snow and ice for 
about five months; and long after the 
snow has disappeared from the city 
streets it lies deep all over the surround- 
ing country. 

The city playgrounds are flooded for 
skating, and here with no danger of 
breaking through the ice, old and young 
may safely enjoy themselves even after 
dark. At Frogner and Bislet are 
great skating-rinks where international 
matches are held, and in the hills sur- 
rounding the city may be found excellent 
slopes for ski-jumping, and roads for to- 
bogganing. 

We will go some sunny winter Sunday 
with the laughing noisy crowds that are 
making their way up toward the heights ! 
Mirth and laughter are heard every- 
where. The sharp cold air brings the 



196 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

color to pale cheeks. There we notice 
an old, experienced skier, perhaps over 
sixty years of age, and by his side his six- 
year-old grandson, shuffling along as well 
as he can. Life and brightness are added 
to the scene by the many handsome 
women and girls; for here they are seen 
at their best, radiant in their most becom- 
ing costumes, and glowing with health 
and energy. Hand in hand, in close suc- 
cession, couple after couple sweep down 
the slopes. If one falls, it may result in 
a general overthrow; but there are no 
scowling looks on that account. They 
help one another up and dash off again. 
Good-fellowship, patience, and hardiness 
are developed under such conditions. 

Late in the afternoon, when darkness 
begins to fall, torches light up the woods, 
their flickering flame throwing ruddy re- 
flections over the white ground and the 
brown tree-trunks, and sending out 
sparks into the darkness. Or at other 
times the pale light pf the moon casts long 



WINTER SPORTS 197 

fantastic shadows among the branches, 
and illumines the path of the skiers. It 
is the poetry of the northern winter even- 
ing in its most beautiful and delicate 
form. The day is ended round the blaz- 
ing fire in some sanatorium or ski-hut, 
and merry laughter makes the rafters 
ring. 

Holmenkol Day 

The Holmenkol-races at the end of 
February form the climax of the skiing 
season. This is Norway's greatest and 
most important ski meet where the youth 
of the country compete for the highest 
honors in this field of sport. It would re- 
quire too much space to describe this meet 
in its entirety, so we shall just give a brief 
outline of the jumping competition. 

This part of the meet always arouses 
admiration and enthusiasm. No one, who 
has not seen it, would believe what the 
competitors achieve. To see the skier at 
tremendous speed taking the leap from 



198 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

the high take-off, and after describing a 
long arc in the air reach the earth once 
more at a distance of about two hundred 
feet lower down, makes one marvel that 
he can escape without broken limbs. Can 
you imagine a person falling from a 
fourth-story window without being 
killed? Here they drop from as great a 
height, while the length of the jump from 
the take-off to the place where they again 
touch the ground is up to two hundred 
and thirty-five feet (record). Still, most 
of them manage to keep on their feet 
when landing and continuing till the level 
at the foot of the hill is reached. 

It is impossible not to admire the cour- 
age, strength, and coolness that this must 
require; and the applause that greets 
each successful bold leap resounds among 
the hills. 

But if a man falls amid a cloud of snow, 
while the points of his skis describe cir- 
cles in the air or snap off like match-wood, 
he is greeted with shouts of laughter; and 



WINTER SPORTS 199 

if a competitor is seen to draw back at the 
leap, and collapse like a bundle of rags he 
is jeered at without mercy. 

The Holmenkol Hill is used for this 
contest only and is closed off shortly after 
the races. But before this is done the lit- 
tle boys, anxious to try their skill, swarm 
all over the hill, and his is the thrill of a 
lifetime who can boast of having 
"' cleared " " Holmenkolbakken." 

Skating is another very popular sport 
in Norway, and Norwegians have led the 
world in skating for half a century. 

As a young boy, I used to skate to and 
from school, and when I went to high 
school, twenty-one miles from my home, I 
used to skate home at week-ends. This 
round trip of forty-two miles gave me 
splendid training, and laid the foundation 
for my future success as a fast skater. 

At the age of nineteen I won the na- 
tional championship for the distance of 
one mile. Then I stopped, feeling that 
the game was not worth the powder. 



200 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

That was the golden age in Norway's 
history of skating when Axel Paulsen 
and later Harald Hogen held the world's 
championship for skating on all distances, 
and Mr. Werner had no peer in any coun- 
try for fancy skating. 

Then for a time skiing robbed skating 
of many of its devotees. But in re- 
cent years Oscar Mathiesen's victories 
throughout Europe and his final victory 
over the American, Bobby MacLean, 
have restored skating to its former popu- 
larity. 

The great skating rinks at Frogner 
and Bislet, near Christiania, are divided 
into two circles. The outer circle is for 
distance skaters practising for champion- 
ship races, and in the inner circle are seen 
a motley crowd of ladies and gentlemen, 
boys and girls devoting themselves to or- 
dinary and figure-skating with the addi- 
tion of flirtation — such as takes place so 
naturally and spontaneously when one is 
gliding around on skates. 



WINTER SPORTS 201 

This graceful exercise is becoming 
more and more popular, and the effect, in 
the evening, of the ever moving figures 
beneath the arc lights, and the glow of 
colored lanterns has a charm of its own 
that appeals to all. 

Of all the other Norse sports space will 
not permit us to speak. 



CHAPTER XXII 

NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 

My father telling me of the old Vi- 
kings, said that they spoke a language 
which is no longer used in Norway, but it 
is used in a modern form in Iceland. 
This language was called Old Norse or 
Icelandic. " But," said he, " you under- 
stand that a language could not move from 
one country to another without the people 
who spoke it migrated or moved. And 
how the Old Norse was transplanted 
from Norwegian to Icelandic soil forms 
a most interesting history, which I shall 
tell in a few words." 

This takes us back to the time when 

Harold the " Fair-Haired " conquered 

about thirty-one earls and kinglets of the 

country and federated them into the 

Norse Kingdom. You will remember, 

202 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 203 

that at that date the Holy Roman Em- 
pire, though recently organized, was al- 
ready going to pieces ; Russia was merely 
a principality; and Denmark and Eng- 
land (under Alfred the Great), were the 
only nations of Europe that have had an 
unbroken history of more than a thousand 
years. From this you will understand 
that Norway is one of the oldest sovereign 
states in Europe. 

Harold was only a boy ten years of age, 
when his father died and in 860 he became 
king of one of the small kingdoms into 
which Norway was divided. The neigh- 
boring small kings thought it would be 
rather easy to defeat this young boy and 
steal his kingdom, but fortunately for 
Harold he had good counselors and a 
strong will-power end in twelve years he 
gained the victory over all of them. 

Harold would probably never have be- 
come the supreme ruler of the whole 
country, but for a young girl named 
Gyda. When Harold wooed her she re- 



204 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

fused proudly saying that the only man 
for her would be one who could conquer 
all the other petty kings in Norway and 
thus become the sole ruler of the whole 
country. If she could not find a man who 
was able to do that, she would never 
marry. Thus she set Harold a new and 
difficult task ; but he made an oath that he 
would neither cut nor comb his hair or 
beard until this great work was finished. 
He defeated one after another of these 
small kings, until finally he conquered the 
last ones in the bloody battle of Hafes- 
f jord, 872. At this place one can see to- 
day a large shaft called the Harold monu- 
ment. This tells the silent story of his 
final victory. Now he was king over all 
Norway and Gyda was ready to marry 
him; but before the /v^edding the barber 
must have had quite a job to cut the hair 
and beard that had not even been combed 
for twelve years. When it was cut, they 
called him Harold the Fair- Haired, and 
up to date he is known by that name. 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 205 

Now came the great wedding feast; it 
lasted over one week and all who came 
had plenty to eat and drink. Then they 
would sing and play and narrate interest- 
ing experiences and strange stories from 
their battles at home and abroad, and 
when the drinking had made them gay 
and giddy they would enter into all kinds 
of games and sports becoming to the 
brave and valiant Vikings. 

But the rule of Harold was not wel- 
comed by the people, who had been ac- 
customed to govern themselves. Harold 
forced the earls to acknowledge his over- 
lordship and although he permitted them 
to administer justice in their oa^h prov- 
inces, collect taxes, and maintain petty 
armies subject to his command, yet many 
of them were dissatisfied and left the 
country. The same is true of the peas- 
ants who lost their former land tenure, as 
the land was declared the property of the 
king, and the personal tax which the king 
introduced was nicknamed " nose tax." 



206 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

From this time Norse Colonization 
begins, as well as the Viking ravages. 
Many of the wealthiest and best edu- 
cated people, including the earls and 
petty kings, left Norway. Some went 
out as sea-robbers. This was strictly for- 
bidden by Harold in his own kingdom, 
but against foreign countries such rav- 
ages were considered both legitimate and 
becoming for warriors and gentlemen. 

These Norsemen went to the Faroe 
Islands, the Hebrides, the Orkney, Ice- 
land, and Shetland Isles, England, Scot- 
land, Ireland, France, Italy, and 
America. Those who left Norway in or- 
der to build new colonies took along 
everything they had, even their log houses 
and furniture. In Iceland they formed 
a very strong colony and between this and 
the mother country was carried on a lively 
intercourse. 

But, you say, what connection is there 
between Norse literature and Harold the 
Fair-Haired and all the people who be- 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 207 

came dissatisfied and left Norway? 
They are connected as cause and effect. 
The proud men who left Norway have 
written the great Saga literature during 
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In 
their new homes in Iceland they had the 
four things which are essential for a 
literary activity; namely, time, money, 
ability, and the right motive power. 
Writing is often non-productive finan- 
cially, therefore, it requires time and capi- 
tal, as well as the ability to write. But 
most of all, they had the right motive 
power. In their bleak, bare, and cold Ice- 
land home they were seized with a longing 
and a love for their native country as 
never before. Their new homes were 
poor and inhospitable compared with 
their former Norse homes, and the social 
activities on Iceland were limited and 
primitive compared to their regal feasts 
among their many friends and kinsfolk in 
Norway. 

This longing and love for their native 



208 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

land and former social environment cre- 
ated in them a glowing patriotism. As 
the blessings of health are more appre- 
ciated by a person when he is laid on the 
sick bed, so the blessings of their Norway- 
homes were now fully appreciated by 
these lonely people on the little ice-cov- 
ered Iceland. 

Such was the mental attitude of these 
Saga writers when they commenced to 
collect the records of their race. They 
wrote about the great heroes among their 
fathers and the history of the gods they 
worshipped. They gave a full account of 
their laws and customs, as well as the de- 
tails of their daily lives, their travels, bat- 
tles and early colonizations. They wrote 
in the Old Norse language and their pro- 
ductions were excellent both from a his- 
torical and literary viewpoint. 

Any nation might be proud to own 
such men as Are (called Frode or the 
Wise) who died in 1148; or Karl Jons- 
son, Sturla Fordsson, and above all 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 209 

Snorre Sturlasson. Snorre's great his- 
tory of his race, which is called '' Heims- 
kringla" (The World's Circle) tells of 
the Northman from the earliest and leg- 
endary days down to the year 1177. It 
is one of the most picturesque and on the 
whole most truthful records of a nation's 
history to be met with in Europe. Sev- 
eral other works were written in the 
Norse language and in Norway during 
this period. In many respects the most 
remarkable one of these is *' Konge Spei- 
let" (The King's Mirror), a book of 
maxims regarding social life and manners 
which cast a flood of light on the period to 
which it belongs. 

In the same way we find the religious 
life of the people of that time reflected in 
preserved books of homilies, and these are 
written in Old Norse, in spite of the fact 
that Latin was the theological language 
in all countries at that time. In the 
Sagas we find the essential facts concern- 
ing the discovery of America by Lief the 



210 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

Lucky — five hundred years before Co- 
lumbus rediscovered it. 

There are to be found excellent Eng- 
lish translations of the Sagas and in uni- 
versity circles they are widely read and 
studied. It is difficult to produce a grow- 
ing literature in a language which is 
spoken by so few people that the demand 
for books is not large enough to pay the 
cost of production. Another factor 
which in the middle of the fourteenth cen- 
tury paralyzed the national literature and 
almost the whole nation's life was the 
desolating scourge of the Black Death. 
In some parishes the whole population 
died. 

But how did the Old Norse language 
die? By having substituted for it a new 
language, namely the Danish. 

When a whole country gives up its lan- 
guage it is usually conquered by a stronger 
nation and obliged to adopt its language. 
This was the case, for instance, when 
Greece conquered Egypt. Not so with 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 211 

Norway. It has never been conquered by 
any nation. It was united with Denmark 
about the middle of the fifteenth century 
through the Norwegian king Olaf, who 
was also elected king of Denmark. This 
union, which continued for nearly four 
hundred years, was a dark period for 
Norway both intellectually and com- 
mercially. The reasons for Norway giv- 
ing up her own language may be sum- 
marized as follows : 

First, Norway did not have her own 
university, therefore all who wanted a 
professional training were obliged to at- 
tend the university of Copenhagen. 
When these students returned to their na- 
tive country they used the Danish lan- 
guage, at least in their written produc- 
tions. 

Secondly, The Protestant Reformation 
completed the process, as with it came the 
translation and distribution of the Bible 
in the Danish language. Thus Danish be- 
came the theological language and was 



212 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

used even in the popular religious instruc- 
tions in Norway. 

Thirdly, The Norse king and most of 
the civil officers were Danish, hence this 
became the language of the state. 

It was only in law that the native lan- 
guage of Norway held out against the in- 
trusion of the Danish, and of course the 
spoken language in the rural districts was 
the Old Norse. 

During the latter part of the seven- 
teenth, and including the eighteenth 
century, Norway produced at least three 
names that are famous in literature. 
The first one of these three, Petter 
Dass, the parish priest of Alstahaug, 
in Nordland, was my favorite author 
when I was about eight or nine years 
of age. I never grew tired of reading his 
poems in " Nordland's Trompet," several 
of which I can quote yet. In these bright 
and humorous poems he glorified the nat- 
ural beauty and life of the cold and dark 
Northland. But he did not confine 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 213 

himself to the beauties of nature. He 
wrote extensively on religious subjects 
for the instruction of his parishioners in- 
cluding poetical versions of Luther's 
Catechism, and of various books of the 
Old Testament and the Apocrypha. 
This was a splendid method for giving re- 
ligious instructions, as his poetry had a 
very easy rhythm, and it was much easier 
to remember than the prose. His writ- 
ings had a widespread popularity, and the 
ignorant people circulated any number 
of stories about this wonderful man who 
according to their belief knew every- 
thing, even the black art. He died in 
1708. 

The second one of these three great 
poets, Ludwig Holberg, a native of Ber- 
gen, Norway, lived in the eighteenth cen- 
tury. As a famous dramatist, having 
written more than a score of plays, he is 
immortal. He is the " Moliere of the 
North '^ of whom it has been well said, 
that " Ludwig Holberg incorporated 



214 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

Denmark and Norway with contempo- 
rary Europe, and left to the twin nations 
as an imperishable inheritance a modern 
literature, a modern stage, and a modern 
prose." 

My father told me, when I was young, 
how small, boyish, and insignificant Hol- 
berg looked, even after he had graduated 
from the university. On one of his many 
journeys in England when he entered 
into the discussion at a certain meeting, 
one of the company asked of him con- 
temptuously, " When did you run away 
from school, my little boy? " But Hol- 
berg bombarded him in Latin until the 
man was unable to answer. Latin was 
considered the language of the educated 
class in those days, and when Holberg ar- 
rived in Denmark he says that they al- 
ways wrote Latin, spoke French to their 
wives, German to their dogs, but Danish 
to their servants only. This and many 
other foolish customs he managed to 
eradicate. 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 215 

Although a Norwegian by birth he 
lived and wrote in Denmark, and out of 
the uncultivated Danish tongue he cre- 
ated a rich and ingenious literary lan- 
guage. 

The third literary light in this period 
was the patriotic Bishop of Bergen, 
Johan Nordahl Brun, born 1745, and 
died in 1816. He wrote, among other 
things, one of Norway's most stirring pa- 
triotic songs, " For Norway Heroes' Fa- 
therland." This and Bjornson's modern 
song, " Yes, We Love This Land," are 
the two great National Anthems of Nor- 
way. 

We now come to the great literary 
awakening in Norway. This came as a 
result of Norway's separation from the 
four hundred years of union with Den- 
mark, May 17th, 1814. At this time two 
brilliant poets became leaders of two op- 
posing parties, Henrik Wergeland, the 
son of a clergyman and patriot, who was 
one of the framers of Norway's constitu- 



216 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

tion in 1814. Henrik, the great poet, 
used to say that he was six years older 
than the constitution. Henrik Werge- 
land, a great democratic patriot, became 
the hero of the common people, and in 
prose and poetry he expressed the long- 
ings of a recovered national life. 

Christian Brinchmann has written of 
Wergeland that he " rushed into Life, 
intoxicated with ecstasy over its fulness, a 
youth more light of heart than the light- 
est-hearted, and yet of a deep and manly 
intellect, to whom existence revealed its 
seriousness and its claim to the devotion 
of the whole personality. Wergeland 
glorified the struggle for liberty in poetic 
cycles, lashed his adversaries with wild 
forces, blamed the authorities with tem- 
pestuous eloquence for their weak na- 
tional feeling, and ardently incited iiis 
countrymen to free themselves entirely 
from the traditions that still maintained, 
through their civil servants, the old de- 
pendence on Danish culture." Werge- 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 217 

land was a prolific writer. His largest 
work was a drama entitled '' The Crea- 
tion, Mankind and the Messiah." 

Welhaven, the leader of the other 
party, possessed a finer sesthetic sense 
than Wergeland and he disliked the tone 
of this "Seventeenth of May poetry'' and 
the national enthusiasm. That Werge- 
land should be connected with such crude 
literary products offended Welhaven's 
critical faculty. 

In 1834 he published a series of sonnets 
called " Norway's Dawn." In these he 
set himself directly in opposition to the 
popular sentiment, as manifested in the 
nationalistic " Seventeenth of May po- 
etry." 

A warfare with the pen was now openly 
declared between Wergeland and Wel- 
haven, and it even led to personal conflicts 
between their supporters. Outside of 
this pen war, Wergeland, in his two spir- 
ited pleadings, "The Jew" and "The 
Jewess," did much to procure liberty for 



218 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

the Jews who were prohibited by law 
from settling in Norway. In Christiania, 
on the tomb of this famous poet is to be 
seen a beautiful monument with the fol- 
lowing inscription: " Thankful Jews 
erected this monument for Henrik 
Wergeland/' 

Amid the mourning of an entire nation 
he passed quietly away at the early age of 
thirty-eight (July 12, 1845). Werge- 
land was the big-hearted, beloved poet of 
Norway. 

One of the many stories which my fa- 
ther told me of Wergeland I must relate. 
Wergeland was so sympathetic and good- 
hearted that he used to giA^e away his 
clothes, and his mother was obliged to put 
under lock even the bedclothing not in 
use, otherwise Henrik would give it 
away. One day, Henrik's father, a min- 
ister of the gospel, had refused to confirm 
a boy who was so old that he was really a 
young man. Thus to fail in the confir- 
mation class one year after another was 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 219 

considered the greatest disgrace. Conse- 
quently the big boy came along the road 
crying. Henrik, a boy about ten years 
of age, went and asked the cause of his 
trouble. Having learned this, he said to 
the poor student, '' Do not cry; come back 
here to-morrow noon, and I will get Fa- 
ther to pass you." At the appointed 
hour they met and Henrik gave him a 
basket in which was a goose. Geese were 
scarce in that part of the country and 
Henrik knew that his father was very 
fond of the only bird of this kind in their 
possession. As he gave the basket to the 
young man Henrik said, '' Bring this to 
Father and tell him that you will present 
him with this goose providing he will let 
you pass. State also that from now on 
until confirmation day you will read dili- 
gently early and late." 

At first the pastor was not willing, but 
having received the promise that the boy 
would study hard, the clergyman accepted 
the gift. With great joy he went to the 



220 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY. 

parsonage and showed it to his wife, stat- 
ing that now his former goose would have 
a companion. Finally he handed the bas- 
ket to Henrik and asked him to take this 
goose out to the other one. When the 
boy returned, his father said, " Did they 
fight?" "No," said Henrik, "she did 
not." This peculiar answer caused the 
Reverend to go out and see what had hap- 
pened, and finding only one goose, he un- 
derstood at once the whole connection. 
He went in and asked Henrik, " Why did 
you do that? " " I thought it would be 
amusing to see if a goose could confirm a 
boy," answered Henrik. 

This Henrik Arnold Wergeland, as 
Bjornson has remarked, became " the 
bright tutelary spirit of the new Nor- 
wegian poetry. He dreamed all the 
dreams of our young liberty." 

Welhaven lived nearly thirty years 
longer than Wergeland, but he did not 

add very much to what he had already 
written. 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 221 

Of Welhaven, Mr. Edmund Gosse 
writes: " His mission seems to have been 
like Lessing in Germany and Heiberg in 
Denmark, to revolutionize the world of 
taste, and to institute a new great school 
of letters, less by the production of fine 
works of art from himself than by the 
introduction of sound canons of criticism 
for the use of others." 

Our school readers contained many in- 
teresting pieces by two other authors 
from this period, namely, Asbjornsen and 
Jorgen Moe. They brought to light the 
wealth of material in form of folk-lore and 
fairy-tales. These had been preserved only 
by word of mouth among the peasants, 
but these authors transformed them into 
classics. Samples of these will be found in 
this book under the chapter of '' Popular 
Superstitions and Fairy Tales." Moe, 
who became Bishop of Christiania, wrote 
also some of the most beautiful and touch- 
ing lyrics in our language. But if you 
want to read something fascinating and 



222 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

realistic concerning peasant life in Nor- 
way, then you can procure fine English 
translations of Bjornstjerne Bjornson's 
books, " Synnove Solbakken," ''Arne," 
^'The Happy Boy," and the "Fisher 
Maiden," and many otliers. As a boy I 
used to lie awake nights and read these 
enchanting romances, which picture the 
life of the people in a wholesome sunny 
optimism. Bjornson, the son of a parish 
priest, was born in 1832 at Kvikne, but 
soon his parents moved to the beautiful 
Romsdalen. Here the romantic and pic- 
turesque natural surroundings made a 
deep impression on the receptive boy, and 
this is again reflected in the freshness and 
charm with which he so faithfully repro- 
duces the life of the Norse peasant. Be- 
sides many dramas, which have been 
translated and played in most European 
countries, Bjornson has written a great 
number of excellent lyric poems. Among 
these is Norway's National Anthem, 
" Yes, we fondly love this country." 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 223 

The influence of Bjornson upon the life 
and thought of his countrymen has been 
great. He participated in all the social 
and political conflicts in the country and 
he was an excellent orator. Never shall 
I forget this powerful, majestic person, 
as he ascended the speaker's platform and 
with a magnetic, powerful voice, forceful 
language and elegant rhetoric delivered a 
Seventeenth of May address in Christi- 
ania. I also had the pleasure of visiting 
his country place, Aulestad, in Gausdal. 
Of Bjornson's beautiful home life, Mr. 
William E. Curtis writes: 

"At his country place he receives many 
visitors and gives friends and strangers a 
uniform welcome. They take him as he 
is, without formality or ceremony, and 
whether his guest is a prince or a peasant 
there is no difference in the form of enter- 
tainment or the heartiness of his hospi- 
tality. Bjornson's great heart is so com- 
prehensive that it admits every one to its 
embrace. Although he had a large in- 
come from his books and lectures, he had 



224 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

never been able to accumulate money, 
while Ibsen, whose revenues have not 
been so great, was a rich man. Whatever 
Bjornson has not wasted on his farm he 
has given to the poor or lost through his 
confidence in humanity." 

Even his most distinguished visitors 
were forbidden to smoke anywhere 
around the main building; they were told 
to go to the " Pig-Pen," a small house 
built for smoking. Bjornson did much 
for the establishment of the splendid Na- 
tional Theatre in Christiania, of which his 
son, Bjorn, was for some time an excel- 
lent manager. Outside the theatre are 
the statues of Bjornson and Ibsen. 

Henrik Ibsen, the father of the modern 
drama, was born in Skien, Norway, 1828. 

Probably no modern author has been 
more abused both in his own country and 
in foreign lands. This was principally 
because they did not understand him. 

Ibsen has created the most realistic 
psychological characters, and when he, as 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 225 

a surgeon of souls, comes with the knife 
and hot iron to cut and cauterize the vices 
of these characters, the audience felt that 
they were unmercifully cut and burned. 

In England, William Archer collected 
a whole volume of the nasty criticisms on 
Ibsen's dramas, and he calls it " Ibsen's 
Epitaph." But to-day Ibsen is more 
alive, played more, and understood better 
in England than ever before. In his 
dramas Ibsen wages war against such 
wrongs as hypocrisy, stagnation in medi- 
ocrity and mere tradition, the passion for 
petty criticism, the labor question, the 
emancipation of women, the peace ques- 
tion, and the need of awakened responsi- 
bility among all classes of society. 

Mr. W. S. Monroe says, " Certainly 
the picture that he paints of the moral 
forces operating in Norway is anything 
but lovely; but it would probably be as 
unfair to accept Ibsen's ' Peer Gynt ' as 
typical of Norse peasant life as to regard 
Zola's ' La Terre ' as representative of 



226 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

life in the French provinces. Ibsen is 
not merely a pessimist and satirist, but a 
social reformer who deals with living 
truths." 

The literary activity of Ibsen has been 
divided by Professor John Storm into 
three periods: 

( 1 ) That of his historical dramas from 
1850 to 1873, the earlier ones, such as 
" Catilina " and " Lady Inger of Os- 
traad," etc, being in verse, and the later 
and more mature ones, such as " Rivals 
for the Throne " and '' Emperor and 
Galelian " (a drama of the Emperor Ju- 
lian), being in prose. 

(2) The period of the rhyming satirical 
up-to-date dramas, such as " Love's 
Comedy," 1862, "Brand" and "Peer 
Gynt," and various poems, 1871, and 

(3) The period of his modern prose 
dramas such as " The Pillars of Society," 
1877, "A Doll's House," 1879, and many 
others. 

Ibsen's daring satire aroused much 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 227 

controversy and was fiercely attacked, but 
the seed which he sowed has borne good 
fruit in the lives of many, who are grate- 
ful to the man that pointed out truths 
which had been long overlooked. 

Ibsen wrote most of his works in Italy 
and Germany; but in 1891 he finally re- 
turned, making Christiania his home, with 
only occasional visits to Germany. 

Ibsen's twenty-one dramas have been 
published in America by Scribner's in 
eleven volumes, and they show his large 
grasp of deep psychological problems and 
his mastery of the resources of the stage. 
A great deal of light is thrown on the man 
himself. First, by the publication in 
1898 of a volume of "Appreciations " of 
the poet by a number of eminent men. 
The occasion was his seventieth birthday, 
and his friends combined to do him honor. 
Secondly, in Mr. John Paulsen's " Samliv 
med Ibsen." This author is for Ibsen 
what Boswell was for Samuel Johnson. 

Holdane Mac Fall says of Ibsen: 



228 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAYi 

" Like the old sea-dogs of whom He 
came, and they left their mark upon his 
features and his soul, he was a stubborn 
fighter. Peace he held as not the most 
desirable condition; the warfare of stren- 
uous living was the more healthy for man. 
His eyes were the watchful eyes of the 
sailor folk, at constant guard for the 
threat of danger that may leap forth on 
every hand, out of the summer sky above, 
or calm waters beneath, or from out the 
seething hell of the black, bewildering 
tempest, ever ready for war with the ele- 
ments without. So did he keep watch 
against the elements of weaknesses 
within." 

In his home in Christiania, May 23, 
1906, Ibsen passed away. He was fol- 
lowed to the grave by a vast concourse 
headed by King Haakon VII. He was 
laid in his last resting place with every 
mark of respect that could be shown to 
one who had exercised such an important 
influence on the life and thought of his 
country. 

Foremost among the other authors is 
Jonas Lie, who in 1870 published his 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 229 

novel, " The Visionary," which immedi- 
ately achieved success. 

Lie wrote several interesting tales, 
which are founded on the lives of the peo- 
ple in the far north of Norway, and de- 
scriptive of the seafaring life, such as 
" The Pilot and His Wife," " The Three- 
master Future," " Rutland," and " Go 
Ahead." 

In his later writings Lie turned to 
novels dealing with psychological ques- 
tions. In a long series of impressionis- 
tically lifelike pictures, he paints his 
careful observations of the life of family 
and society in " One of Life's Slaves," 
"The Gilje Family," "A Whirlpool," 
" The Commodore's Daughters," " A 
Conjugal Union," " Evil Powers," and 
" When the Sun Goes Down." 

In reading Lie one enjoys his humor 
and cheerful view of life, but most of all 
the intelligent sympathy of a warm na- 
ture that speaks to the heart. Upon re- 
flection one will see that little Norway has 



230 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

had at least a couple of authors in each 
period that are really great and enjoy in- 
ternational reputation. First we had 
Peder Dass and Holberg, Wergeland, 
and Welhaven; then Asbjornsen and 
Moe; then comes Bjornson, Ibsen and 
Lie, and now we have Arne Garborg and 
Knut Hamsun. 

Arne Garborg's contributions to litera- 
ture are in the form of analytical studies 
of social and religious problems. His 
works, ''A Freethinker " and " Peace,'' 
seem to be reactions to a narrow school 
of pietism which prevailed in his country 
home. But his later works show that he 
has returned to a liberal Christian atti- 
tude. 

Garborg has written in the new Norse 
language, the " Landsmaal." This is a 
powerful language composed of the dif- 
ferent dialects in the country, and con- 
taining, therefore, many old Norse roots. 
Other writers in this language are Jens 
Twedt, Rasmus Loland, and Vetle Vis- 



NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 231 

lie. These have all penned excellent pic- 
tures of rural life. 

Alexander Kjelland is an author who 
has a masterly way of handling the lan- 
guage and great skill in drawing charac- 
ters. Both his novelettes and novels are 
excellent and enchanting. Among the 
best known are his " Garmann and 
Worse," "Skipper Worse/' "Work- 
people," " Else " and " Poison." 

Among other writers of this period are 
Amalia Skram, Sigbjorn Obsf elder. Of 
the new dramatists Heiberg and Egge 
have written powerful and successful 
plays. The lyric writing has been re- 
vived by Nils CoUett Vogt and Wilhelm 
Krag. Their verses show that the gift of 
song still lives in the North. 

In connection with Garborg I have 
mentioned Knut Hamsun, who recently 
received the Nobel Prize in literature. 
His name and literary works are univer- 
sally known and need not be mentioned 
here. 



232 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

Space forbids us even to mention all 
who have made a name for themselves in 
Norse literature at the present time. 
Enough has been said, we trust, to show 
the wonderful way in which such a small 
nation has gained for itself a worthy posi- 
tion in the literature of Europe. Judg- 
ing from Hamsun and others, we may ex- 
pect in the future more giants of the 
Ibsen type from this Viking Land. 

Those who wish fuller information con- 
cerning modern authors whose names are 
in the Norse literary roll may be referred 
to the excellent "Dictionary of Norwe- 
gian Authors," by J. B. Halvorsen. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

A WEDDING FEAST 

The engagement of a couple is, in the 
rural districts of Norway, announced by 
the minister in the church on three suc- 
cessive Sundays. 

If the couple are wealthy, the prepara- 
tions for the wedding will take many 
weeks. There is butchering, baking, sew- 
ing, and brewing of home-made ale, — and 
everything must be on a large scale, for 
the wedding feast is to last at least one 
week — when from two to three hundred 
guests have nothing to do but to eat, 
drink, and be merry. 

Finally, the date for the wedding is set 

and the invitations are given orally by one 

who is a smooth speaker, worthy and well 

qualified for this important office. 

The ancient custom was for the whole 

233 



234 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

bridal procession to ride to church. This 
procession was very picturesque, with the 
ladies in national costume, consisting of a 
dress of bright colors, neatly woven into 
the cloth, white aprons, red bodices out- 
side of a white embroidered linen waist 
and large white bonnets on their heads. 
The men wore knickerbocker trousers 
with small silver buttons and a silver 
buckle on the side, white socks, low shoes 
with silver buckles and a small red stock- 
ing cap. 

The fiddlers would ride in front of the 
procession, then came the bride and bride- 
groom, the master of ceremony, etc. 
Along the road to the church their friends 
would greet them by firing of guns. This 
was not altogether without danger, as 
some of the horses would get scared and 
the ladies would find it difficult to control 
them. 

The most conspicuous person of all is, 
of course, the bride. On her head she 
wears a crown of silver and gold. This 




y 



A WEDDING FEAST 235 

is very expensive, and the poorer people 
are obliged to rent it for the occasion. It 
is also very heavy, and it has happened, 
especially if it were hot weather and if 
the minister were long-winded, that the 
bride would faint during the sermon in 
the church. Her gown is rich and elabo- 
rately decorated with many colors — red 
and green predominating — and several 
lady attendants are very busily engaged 
in seeing that the crown and the bride's 
other paraphernalia are in proper order. 

Arriving home from the church, the 
company is met by the master of cere- 
monies and a couple of attendants, who 
offer every guest a fancy-carved and 
bright-colored bowl containing home- 
brewed ale. Then they all enter a large 
room where the bride and groom greet 
every one in a most graceful manner. 

Soon the big feast is ready and all line 
up for an " out-of-door wedding march." 
This gives the master of ceremonies the 
opportunity to line them up just in the 



236 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

order they are to be seated at the tables. 
The fiddlers take the lead, playing lively. 
The bride and bridegroom follow, and be- 
hind them come the merry guests in 
couples. Now they are ready to partake 
of the appetizing dishes of the feast. 
These consist of cream porridge, rice pud- 
ding, meats — ^hot and cold, — potatoes 
boiled; fish of several kinds; three kinds 
of bread; biscuits; salmon; several kinds 
of cheese; pickles; pudding; several kinds 
of small, dainty cakes; home-brewed ale 
— and (in former days) wine and brandy. 

It is understood that the guests at such 
celebrations are to eat, drink, and enjoy 
themselves. 

Each guest would also bring a present 
in form of some kind of food. 

After the repast^ the merrymakers 
" step lively " to the national dances of 
Hailing and Spring-dance. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

A CRUISE AROUND THE COAST OF NORWAY 
TO NORTH CAPE AND THE MIDNIGHT SUN 

In 1890 I went on a cruise around the 
coast of Norway. For uniqueness, in- 
terest, and impressive beauty, this trip 
cannot be duplicated elsewhere in the 
whole world. 

Our starting-point was Christiania, and 
our jolly company of students and ath- 
letes increased constantly, as we stopped 
at most of the cities around the coast and 
took on board the fraternities of students, 
athletes and singers. 

Most of us were youngsters, with no 
" better half " to occupy our attention, 
hence we had ample time for sports and 
for viewing the beauty of the romantic 
and shifting scenery. 

To our right, this scenery consists of 

the mainland, with its grand panorama of 

varied landscape, fjords, mountains, and 

237 



238 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

cities; and to our left, 150,000 small and 
large islands form a perfect breakwater, 
and thus afford us a perfectly calm and 
pleasant cruise with the water as smooth 
as a lake. 

Space will, unfortunately, simply per- 
mit us to mention a few of the lovely and 
grand sights which we enjoyed on this 
never-to-be-forgotten voyage. 

From Christiania to Trondhjem, land- 
ings were often made, and we visited some 
of the most beautiful fjords and sounds, 
besides many historic places, towns and 
remarkable natural phenomena. 

In the bright and beautiful city of 
Trondhjem, the streets are almost as 
thronged with people at midnight as at 
midday. From this place we start on a 
June evening for a week's cruise in con- 
tinual daylight. 

Friends, from whom we are taking 
leave for a while, wish us " bon voyage " 
as they wave to us from the shore. 

The mountains are clothed in royal 



A CRUISE 239 

purple, and the glorious radiance of the 
last sunset which we shall see for a week 
is casting a rosy glow over the picturesque 
old city and the fortified island of Munk- 
holmen, which played such a prominent 
part in the early history of Trondhjem. 
During our passage between the islands 
and the mainland we feast our eyes on the 
brilliant colors of cloud-rack, land and 
sea. 

A brief halt is made off the fishing vil- 
lage of Brono, which presents a busy 
scene when the herring fleets are fishing 
in the neighboring waters. Here we send 
letters to friends by " bottle post/' They 
are thrown overboard in a sealed bottle 
and picked up by boatmen from the vil- 
lage. 

The Horseman, the Seven Sisters, and 

the Torg's Hat 

The mythical history of these wonder- 
ful rock formations may be briefly con- 
densed from the fuller story: 



240 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

"A younger brother of a cousin of the 
Devil went, we are told, on a visit to his 
seven sisters, now represented by the 
grand mountain peaks on the island of 
Alsten. On his way he met the maiden 
of Leko, with whom he fell in love, but 
who did not respond to his advances. 
Wild with rage, he — ^the Horseman — 
fitted an arrow to his bow to slay her; but 
at the moment when he discharged it a 
favored lover, who arrived opportunely 
on the scene, threw his hat into the path 
of the arrow, which passed through it and 
buried itself in the ground. This hap- 
pened, apparently, just before daybreak, 
for we are told that a moment later the 
sun rose and the whole company — ^Devil's 
cousin, sisters, maiden of Leko, and fa- 
vored lover — were turned into stone. The 
petrified form of the maiden may be seen 
on her native island unto this day. The 
arrow stands on one of the islands passed 
by our steamer. Torg's hat (Torghat- 
ten), with the hole in it, is plainly in evi- 



A CRUISE 241 

dence, the Horseman is still mounted on 
his bony steed, and the seven sisters still 
stand as a memorial of the doleful 
tragedy." 

TJie Famous Svartisen 

is an enormous glacier, covering a plateau 
nearly 4,000 feet above sea level. For 
hours its gleaming ice-field has presented 
a magnificent spectacle to us, and now, 
after a hot day on board the steamer, we 
can spend the evening in visiting this 
majestic glacier. It is beautiful with its 
clear, blue surface and sea-green ice cav- 
erns. When we return to the quay we 
find a little group of demure peasant girls 
awaiting us with bunches of wild flowers 
gathered from the banks of the glacial 
stream. They do not ask us to buy them, 
but stand in a row, silent, holding the 
flowers in their hands. In spite of their 
lack of commercial enterprise, they soon 
dispose of them at the rate of ten or 
twenty-five ore a bunch, each little girl 



242 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

making a nice curtsey when the coin is put 
in her hand. 

The Vest Fjord and Beautiful Nordland 

Du Chaillu remarks that the scenery of 
the Nordland shores is the wildest on the 
coast of Norway, and we see it at its wild- 
est and grandest between Bodo and 
Tromso. There are fine views of glaciers, 
also of snow-clad peaks and steep moun- 
tainsides from which avalanches descend; 
yet at the foot of these barren heights 
there are woods and pleasant pastures. 

An Idyllic Land 

" Undoubtedly the most graphic de- 
scriptions of Nordland and Nordland life 
are those of Jonas Lie, the famous Nor- 
wegian novelist, who spent the most im- 
pressionable years of his life in and 
around Tromso, where his father held the 
post of Sheriff. * If there is a home for 
a wonderfully beautiful idyll,' he writes, 
^ it must be in the fjord- villages of Nord- 



A CRUISE 243 

land in the summer-time. It is as though 
the sun kisses Nature all the more lov- 
ingly because he knows how short a time 
they have to be together, and as if they 
both, for a time, try to forget that they 
must part so soon. Then the hill grows 
green as if by a sudden miracle, and the 
bluebell, the dandelion, the buttercup, 
the dog-daisy, the wild rose, the rasp- 
berry, and the strawberry spring up in 
lavish abundance by every brook, on every 
hillock, on every mountain slope; then 
hundreds of insects hum in the grass as in 
a tropical land; then cows, horses, and 
sheep are driven up the hills and the 
mountainsides, while the Finn from the 
highlands comes down into the valley with 
his reindeer and waters them in the river; 
then the cloudberry moors lie reddening 
for many a mile inland; then there is 
quiet, sunny peace in every cottage, where 
the fisherman is now sitting at home with 
his family, putting his tackle in order for 
the winter fishing; for in Nordland the 



244 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

summer is more beautful than in any 
other place, and there is an idyllic glad- 
ness and peace over Nature, which is to be 
found nowhere else/ Well might Frid- 
tjof Nansen, when his good ship Frarriy 
on her way to the Polar seas, passed along 
the coast of Nordland, say, ' It is unique 
— Si fairyland — a land of dreams. We 
felt afraid to go on too fast — for fear of 
missing something/ " 

We make a short stop at the bright and 
pleasant little town of Tromso, located on 
an island by the same name. 

The Lure of the Arctic 

As we linger on deck after midnight 
and gaze upon this wonderful scene, we 
understand as never before how great is 
the lure of the Frozen North to explorers 
and navigators who have once ventured 
into the icy realms of the Arctic Ocean. 
Nothing could be more alluring, although 
phantasmal, than the apparently inacces- 
sible peaks floating, as it were, high above 



A CRUISE 245 

the sea an3 mist, yet motionless against a 
sky bright with the glorious midnight 
light. 

The Northernmost Town in the World 

This is Hammerfest, where the sun 
does not set from May 13 to July 29, nor 
rise from November 20 to January 21. 

During the dark days the town is 
lighted by electricity, and it possesses an 
excellent telephone service. 

Ships of all nations frequent its har- 
bors, which are never closed by ice, due to 
the influence of the Gulf Stream. It is a 
busy place from which fishing fleets are 
sent to the Polar seas. 

The Bird Bock 

" We leave Hammerfest after lunch, 
and during the afternoon the yacht stops 
under the towering bird cliff of Hjelmso- 
stauren, the ledges of which are lined with 
hundreds of thousands of rock birds that 
nest there. Hjelmsostauren is one of the 



246 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

most famous bird rocks in the world, and 
as we watch the flight and listen to the 
wild cries of its immense flocks of guille- 
mots, puffins and gulls, we gain some idea 
of the wonderful and extraordinarily- 
abundant bird life of the Arctic Ocean. 
The face of the rock is almost covered 
with them, the air is filled with them, and 
thousands are swimming around the 
yacht. When a gun is fired the sky is 
darkened by the clouds of birds that rise 
from the ledges, and yet there is no appre- 
ciable diminution of the numbers remain- 
ing apparently undisturbed on the rock. 
We are told that only the young birds are 
alarmed by the report of a gun. The old 
birds, having become accustomed to the 
sound — for every cruising yacht dis- 
charges a gun here in order that its pas- 
sengers may see the birds take flight — 
usually remain on their nests.'' 

The JLyngen Fjord 
An Englishman says that even if Nor- 



A CRUISE 247 

way had nothing else in the way of natu- 
ral scenery to attract strangers to its 
shores, it would be well worth while to 
make a far longer voyage than that from 
England in order to see the austere mag- 
nificence and marvelous color of the Lyn- 
gen Fjord. 

Lapps and Reindeer 

Here we visit a Lapp camp. This race 
is typically Mongolian. They have a 
yellowish complexion, high cheek bones, 
low foreheads, full lips, narrow eyes, and 
broad, blunt noses. They often live to a 
great age, and in this encampment there 
are ancient, wrinkled, pipe-smoking 
dames between ninety and a hundred 
years old. Some of these ancient crones 
still have a reputation for skill in magic 
and witchcraft. 

The Lofoten Islands and Their Fishery 

" The Lofoten Islands, which we have 
now approached, have been aptly de- 



248 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY^ 

scribed as a chain of mountains cleft Hy 
countless creeks and straits. They lie 
within the Arctic Circle, and are sepa- 
rated from the mainland of Norway by 
the great Vest Fjord and some narrow 
channels. There are four large islands 
and a number of smaller ones flanked by 
thousands of rocky islets. Although ly- 
ing within the same lines of latitude as 
Greenland and Siberia, they enjoy a com- 
paratively mild climate, and their harbors 
are not frozen even during the severest 
winters. All the islands are mountain- 
ous, with crater-like granite peaks or Al- 
pine summits, and much of their scenery 
is grand. Most of the larger islands are 
inhabited by fishermen, who, from Janu- 
ary to April, carry on, in the Vest Fjord, 
the famous Lofoten fishery, the waters of 
the fjord being then perceptibly darkened 
by the presence of immense shoals of cod, 
which come in from the depths of the At- 
lantic to spawn on banks near the Nord- 
land coast. Several thousand boats are 



A CRUISE 249 

engaged in this great fishery. When the 
fish are brought ashore they are opened 
and cleaned, men, women and children 
taking part in the work. They are known 
as 'klipfisk' (split fish), and are spread 
on the rocks to dry, afterwards being 
piled in stacks along the shore under 
wooden covers known as ' hats.' Some 
are fastened by pegs to long rods and al- 
lowed to dry in the wind until they have 
the consistency of leather. These are 
called stock-fish. Shortly before summer 
most of the season's catch is taken to 
Bergen, and from thence exported to 
Spain, Italy, and other countries. Most 
of the cods' heads are dried by fire and 
made into fish guano, but on some of the 
outlying islands they are boiled with sea- 
weed and used to feed cattle. From the 
livers cod-liver oil is made. Along the 
low rocks of the Lofotens and of the 
Nordland and Finmarken coasts the 
great cauldrons in which the livers are 
slowly stewed can easily be seen." 



250 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY. 

The Monstrous Kraken 
This is a " sea-beast '' like the Levia- 
than. Bishop Pontoppidan, who pub- 
lished a " Natural History of Norway " 
in 1751, describes this monster as being 
the largest creature in the world. The 
kraken, according to the Bishop, had a 
back that, when it rose from the depths 
of the sea, formed an island about a mile 
and a half in circumference, and for an 
island it was often mistaken by inexperi- 
enced mariners who landed on it without 
realizing their danger. " So long as they 
were content with walking on it, the 
kraken seems to have let them do so in 
safety; but if they subjected it to any 
such indignity as lighting a fire on it or 
digging a hole in it, they either found 
themselves struggling in the sea or seized 
by long, tree-like tentacles, strong enough 
to drag a ship down into the depths of the 
ocean, the waves meanwhile being stained 
with a dark fluid ejected by the monster 
in its rage." 



A CRUISE 251 

The Mythical Maelstrom 

THe fact upon which the mythical 
stories of the Maelstrom seems to be based 
is a simple one. " Owing to the masses 
of water forced by the tides through the 
narrow sounds between the Lofoten Is- 
lands, the current sometimes becomes 
very strong, and is at its strongest off the 
island of Moskenes, where, according to 
Du Chaillu, it runs in winter ' in strong 
whirls, and with the speed of twenty-six 
miles an hour.' A like phenomenon may 
also be witnessed at the entrance of the 
Salten Fjord, on the east side of the Vest 
Fjord." 

The North Cape 

The northernmost point of Norway is a 
rocky headland on Magero Island — the 
end of all things, rising a thousand feet 
above the deep, blue Arctic sea. The 
climb up the steep, zigzag pathway from 
the spot where the steamer lands you, is 
arduous, and we were glad of the aid af- 



252 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

forded by ropes secured to iron stanchions 
beside the path. The top is a bare and 
wind-swept tableland strewn with small 
sandstone, mica slate, and quartz. There 
is a wooden hut and from a flagstaff near 
it floats the Norwegian flag. The only 
liquid refreshments obtainable here are 
champagne and lemonade. We were as- 
tonished to find that in spite of the diffi- 
culties of transportation, souvenirs and 
refreshments offered for sale here cost no 
more than in Christiania or Trondhjem. 
Here, facing the North Pole, is the red 
granite column which commemorates the 
visit of the late King Oscar II to the 
island in 1871. At midnight, we all as- 
semble on the edge of the steep and lofty 
cliff, and from this fine vantage-point, 
over a thousand feet above the sea, we 
gaze across the Arctic Ocean at the mid- 
night sun. 

The Midnight Sun, as described by Du 
Chaillu: 



A CRUISE 253 

" The T3rilliancy of the splendid orb 
varies in intensity, like that of sunset and 
sunrise, according to the state of moisture 
of the atmosphere. One day it will be of 
a deep red color, tingeing everything with 
a roseate hue, and producing a drowsy ef- 
fect. There are times when the changes 
in the color between the sunset and sun- 
rise might be compared to the variations 
of a charcoal fire, now burning with a 
fierce red glow, then fading away, and 
rekindling with greater brightness. 

" There are days when the sun has a 
pale, whitish appearance, and when even 
it can be looked at for six or seven hours 
before midnight. As this hour ap- 
proaches, the sun becomes less glaring, 
gradually changing into more brilliant 
shades as it dips toward the lowest point 
of its course. Its motion is very slow, 
and for quite a while it apparently fol- 
lows the line of the horizon, during which 
there seems to be a pause, as when the sun 
reaches noon. This is midnight. For a 
few minutes the glow of sunset mingles 
with that of sunrise, and one cannot tell 
which prevails ; but soon the light becomes 
slowly and gradually more brilliant, an- 
nouncing the birth of another day, and 
often before an hour has elapsed the sun 



254 ^^HEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY 

becomes so dazzling that one cannot look 
at it with the naked eye." 

Another evening we saw the Aurora 
Borealis, or the Northern Light, as it 
came straight from the Arctic Sea, "steal- 
ing o'er the waters like a benediction." 
Of all natural phenomena, this is one of 
the most striking. Especially in the 
northern part of Norway, where its full 
glory is revealed. The site of the appear- 
ance, in the north part of the heavens, and 
its close resemblance to the aspect of the 
sky before sunrise, have originated the 
name. It appears as an opalescent radi- 
ance born of twilight and of dawn. Some- 
times it forms in the zenith, in a shape re- 
sembling that of an umbrella, pouring 
down streams of light from all parts of its 
periphery, which falls vertically over the 
hemisphere in every direction. It is a 
marvel of magnificence, a unique and 
never-to-be-forgotten scene. 

THE END 



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